Our advice is always to talk with us as soon as you can – you might be worrying unnecessarily.
If you’re struggling to make the payment, the first thing you should do is to give us a call and speak to a member of our team. Our friendly advisors will talk you through your options, based on your circumstances.
There is a number of ways which we can help, like setting up a sustainable and affordable payment plan. If you have a prepayment meter (or would like a prepayment meter) the recovery rate can be loaded on your meter ensuring reasonable rates that you can repay over time, and still maintain enough credit to power your house. Each case is considered on its own merit.
As long as you agree a reasonable payment plan with us and stick to it, then no further action will be taken such as the use of debt recovery agents or meter change. We will call you to review the payment plan throughout the year to make sure the plan is still suitable for your circumstances. Many people worry about ‘having your electricity cut off’ but this would only happen in extreme circumstances and only as a last resort!
If you’re the direct debit customer, and you stop making payments altogether, under certain circumstances, we may ask you to switch to a prepayment meter in order to recover a debt.
There are various places where you can ask for help and advice on fuel debt. We’ve listed some of them here, and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau will be able to tell you about others.
We work with Step Change who offer free debt management advice. You can call them confidentially.
Step Change 0800 138 1111 stepchange.org
National Debt line 0808 808 4000 nationaldebtline.co.uk
Consumer Credit Counselling Service 0800 138 1111 cccs.co.uk
Citizens Advice 0345 404 0506 citizensadvice.org.uk
Consumer Direct 0845 404 0506 consumerdirect.gov.uk
Consumer Line (Northern Ireland) 0845 600 6262 consumerline.org
Community Legal Advice 0845 345 4345 communitylegaladvice.org.uk