£150 compensation payment for over 4,000 people with major energy supplier
Utilita to pay £277,000 for Warm Home Discount payment failures over the 2023/24 winter period.
How To Prevent Condensation and Black Mould in Your Home
Ofgem has said energy firm Utilita is to pay around £277,000 in compensation after failing to pay its Warm Home Discount payments on time. The energy regulator found Utilita - which supplies 800,000 customers - failed to pass on the mandatory discount to more than 4,000 customers over 2023 to 2024 because of an internal error in processing payments.
The Warm Home Discount scheme - which is administered by Ofgem on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - helps eligible people on a low income by applying an automatic credit of £150 on their energy account each year to help with higher winter fuel bills.
Ofgem said Utilita had agreed to pay £247,000 of compensation to those affected, who will receive further payments of up to £150 each. This is in addition to £30,000 of compensation Utilita paid to affected customers shortly after the error was identified.
Cathryn Scott, regulatory director of market oversight and enforcement at Ofgem, said: 'The Warm Home Discount is a lifeline for vulnerable energy consumers on low incomes. Even a short delay in making these payments can cause harm to vulnerable customers, so it's vital that suppliers make these payments on time and without hassle.
'Unfortunately, on this occasion, Utilita fell short of our standards by failing to pay some of their customers in a timely manner. Utilita has conducted an audit of their Warm Home Discount processes to make sure this doesn't happen again.
'It's our duty to protect consumers. Today's outcome, as well as the findings set out in our Supplier Performance Report, serve as a reminder to all suppliers that failures to make scheme payments on time are unacceptable, and that we can and will take enforcement action to put things right for customers.'
A Utilita spokesman said: 'Due to an administrative oversight, we missed the March 31 deadline to process the Warm Home Discount payment for a small cohort of customers. All customers received their payment within 12 days.
'We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. We promptly reported our mistake to Ofgem and paid the impacted customers a goodwill gesture.'
Warm Home Discount Scheme
Nearly three million more households across Great Britain would be eligible for discounts on their energy bills later this year under new proposals. The UK Government is now analysing feedback from an online consultation which closed at the end of March.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said one in five families across the country would get financial help under the new plans which would see an additional 2.7 million extra households - including nearly one million with children - eligible for the £150 Warm Home Discount Scheme this winter.
This would bring the total number of eligible households to an estimated 6.1m.
Full details on the Warm Home Discount Scheme can be found on GOV.UK here.
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