Energy firms will have to pay £30 compensation for switching mistakes from today
ENERGY companies that make mistakes or cause delays when switching you will have to pay you £30 in compensation from today.
Under new rules from energy regulator Ofgem, customers will receive an automatic £30 payment from energy suppliers if they are switched by mistake, if their switch takes longer than 15 working days, or if their final bill doesn’t arrive within six weeks.
Ofgem consulted on the updated compensation scheme at the end of last year, but the measures only came into force today.
The changes are the latest in a series of updates to compensation rules designed to penalise suppliers that make switching mistakes.
The last raft of regulations came in on May 1, 2019, and introduced lots of other £30 compensation payments for different errors.
For instance, Ofgem introduced penalties for suppliers failing to alert a customer who has been switched accidentally or failing to resolve a mistaken switch within 20 days.
The rules also added a fine for anyone who was accidentally switched where switching back to the original supplier took more than 21 days.
All of the compensation offered under today's rules and last year's is automatic, and if your insurer doesn't pay what you're entitled to within ten days of a breach occurring, you get another £30 for the delay.
When could you get compensation?
Energy firms will have to pay compensation for the following circumstances, according to new Ofgem regulations:
- customer is switched by mistake
- a switch takes longer than 15 working days
- final bill doesn’t arrive within six weeks
- company fails to alert a customer who has been switched accidentally
- a customer who was accidentally switched is switched back, but it took more than 21 days
If lots of mistakes are made and the company fails to pay up on time for each one, you could end up being paid hundreds of pounds.
Since the regulations were introduced last year, customers have already received £700,000 in payments.
Of these payments, 27 per cent have been for mistaken switches, while 73 per cent have been for late credit balance refunds.
How compensation is paid is up to your supplier. For instance, it could be a bank transfer, or the firm could send a cheque in the post or refund you the money.
Mary Starks, executive director for Consumers and Markets at Ofgem, said: “More customers are switching than ever, with a record 6.4 million changing supplier in 2019.
“But we also know that a minority can still experience problems when they switch.
“As part of our commitment to protecting consumers and enabling competition, we are introducing these new standards to give customers further peace of mind, and to challenge suppliers to get it right first time.”
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