Utility Warehouse to pay £650,000 back to thousands of customers for overcharging on bills
ENERGY supplier Utility Warehouse has been ordered to pay £650,000 for overcharging thousands of customers.
The supplier is refunding and compensating vulnerable customers with £450,000 after it charged them above the price cap.
It will also pay an extra £200,000 into Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund due to the "seriousness of the breach", the energy regulator said.
Between January and November last year, 3,430 Utility Warehouse customers who receive the warm home discount payment were paying above the price cap level, meaning they were overcharged by a collective £150,000.
The supplier noticed the issue, due to a system error, in December and reported it to Ofgem.
Utility Warehouse has since started issuing full refunds to all customers who were overcharged, in addition to an extra £300,000 in compensation.
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It told The Sun the average customer was overcharged by £44, but will receive £132 back in refunds and compensation.
The price cap for the period between October 1 and March 31 is currently sitting at £1,179 per year for households with dual fuel and an average consumption.
The warm home discount is a government scheme that pays £140 towards your electricity bills.
It is usually paid directly to your energy supplier who will then apply the discount to your bills.
A spokesperson for Utility Warehouse said: "A small number of affected customers were mistakenly categorised within the price cap, which led to an overcharge.
"As soon as we realised the mistake we reimbursed them for the overcharge, gave them an additional credit on their account and put them onto the correct tariff.
"We have been working closely with Ofgem since identifying the issue and have also made a significant voluntary contribution to the Energy Redress Scheme."
In December, energy firm iSupply was fined £1.5million after overcharging thousands of customers.
While Shell Energy was forced to pay £390,000 in refunds and compensation to thousands of households for overcharging on bills in June.
Earlier this month, three energy companies agreed to pay out £10.5million after more than one million customers were left without power.