Consumers missing out on cash back over energy supply errors

A survey conducted by Which? revealed more than one in five customers who had suffered problems with their energy provider in the past year did not make a complaint at all.

And nine in 10 of those that are made, but remain unresolved, are not taken to the energy ombudsman for resolution.

An estimated £4m in compensation may be going unclaimed.

The new research comes little more a fortnight after small supplier Co-operative Energy said it planned to cut power and gas prices by three per cent on average from February. The move is thought to be driven by cheaper wholesale energy prices.

Britain’s six largest providers – EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE npower, Centrica, SSE and Scottish Power – passed on steep increases to customers in autumn last year.

According to the report, more than four million customers made complaints to these six major energy suppliers in 2011, with mistakes on bills and inaccurate meter readings causing the most problems.

Which? Executive director Richard Lloyd said the true picture regarding customer dissatisfaction may be going under the radar. Energy companies are not obliged to publish the number of complaints they receive, how long they took to resolve or what the issue was.

He said: “Ofgem, the energy regulator, should publish the truth about the full level of complaints in this essential service.

“Energy suppliers should be held publicly accountable, on a regular basis, for putting right the problems their customers are reporting. It is a sign of the level of frustration with this industry that so many people have a problem but don’t complain.”

Customers can take their complaints to the energy ombudsman for free, but only if it remains unsolved after eight weeks or the supplier sends a deadlock letter saying it can do no more. Some 95 per cent of complaints looked at by the ombudsman are upheld and 70 per cent of them receive financial redress.

John Robertson, a member of the energy and climate change select committee, said: “The largest problem is that people don’t know how to progress their complaint to the energy companies. But the companies have a responsibility to tell people what to do if they don’t like their services.

“People are also confused. They have heard the Government saying these companies have managed to make efficiencies so that prices are lower, but they don’t make it through to the customers.”

He added that energy companies were not doing enough to help people struggling to heat their homes this winter

Some 800,000 of the poorest families qualify for a £120 discount on fuel bills under the Warm Homes Discount scheme, but Save the Children warned last week a “huge” funding shortfall this year means only 25,000 families would get it.

The charity called on energy companies to help to fill the funding gap. Mr Robertson said: “In places like Leeds there will be people in council housing where you won’t be able to do anything about the inefficiency of the house itself – it will stay cold whatever,” Mr Robertson said. “But the energy companies do nothing to help them keep their house warm.”

Comment: Page 12.