Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH JUNE 2018 | 19 Nearly half of vulnerable customers are afraid to switch energy suppliers because they believe they will lose their Warm Home Discount (WHD) benefit, a survey has found. The research, carried out for supplier First Utility, fol- lows a cross-party call on the government last week to review smaller suppliers' exemption from the scheme. ENERGY Vulnerable customers put off switching for fear of losing WHD Under current rules, energy suppliers with fewer than 250,000 customers are exempt from both WHD and the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) energy efficiency improve- ment scheme. According to First Utility's survey of WHD recipients, 42 per cent said they would not switch suppliers because they are afraid of losing their entitlement to the £140 energy bill rebate for low- income households. The same survey shows 63 per cent of WHD recipients would be more likely to switch if all suppliers offered the WHD. Only 17 per cent of households that receive the WHD would consider switching to a supplier that didn't offer it. A total of 25 Labour, Con- servative and SNP MPs wrote to This week Regulator threatens to extend Iresa ban Supplier misses targets set by regulator and ban on taking on new customers may be extended Small energy supplier Iresa has failed to meet targets to improve customer service and faces an extension of the ban that pre- vents it taking on new customers. Ofgem began a three-month investigation into the company, just over two months ago and banned Iresa from taking on new customers, increasing direct debits and asking for one-off payments. The regulator ordered Iresa to improve customer ser- vice by extending call centre hours and bringing down average call wait times to below five minutes, respond- ing to customer emails within five working days, clear- ing a backlog of consumer emails, logging and recording customer dissatisfaction and identifying vulnerable customers, including offering to put them on a priority services register. Iresa has "not fully met" the targets and Ofgem has issued a proposal to extend the ban until they are met. The supplier now has until 27 June to respond to the regulator's initial findings. Ofgem will then decide whether to take further action, which could result in the revocation of the company's supplier licence. Victoria MacGregor, director of energy at Citizens Advice, said: "The ongoing issues with Iresa further highlight the wider problem that it is too easy for new suppliers to enter the market before they have systems and processes in place to deliver good customer service." Iresa is also subject to a separate longer-term inves- tigation by the regulator, launched in February, that followed news of a sudden price hike imposed by the energy company. Iresa had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press. KP WATER Northumbrian 'to end water poverty' Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) says it will eradicate water poverty across its supply areas by 2030. The company, which includes Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water, described its commitment to li 400,000 cus- tomers out of water poverty as a "first" in the water industry. A customer who is in water poverty spends more than 3 per cent of their income on water, aer housing costs. Ofwat estimates only 10 per cent of customers who are strug- gling with their bill currently receive help from their water company through a social tariff. NWG said it wanted to take a new approach, co-created with its customers, to focus on "all causes" of water poverty. The company has also introduced a new social tariff for customers who are "genuinely struggling" to pay their water bills. It said wider engagement with its customers has shown they support a cross-subsidy to expand the social tariff, which now allows the company to offer 50 per cent discounts for those who need it most. ENERGY Ofgem investigates Utility Warehouse Ofgem is investigating the way Utility Warehouse manages customers who are in debt. The regulator said it will determine whether the sup- plier has breached rules related to the way it manages these customers. It will consider if Utility Ware- house, which bundles energy, phone and broadband services into one bill, puts in place "appropriate repayment options" for its indebted customers. Ofgem said: "This includes whether it does enough to try to contact customers in or at risk of debt and to establish with them manageable repayment plans based on their ability to pay, as Ofgem's rules require." The regulator will also inves- tigate whether the company is installing pre-payment meters appropriately as a means of recovering debt from customers, particularly when they install them under warrant. Ofgem added: "The opening of this investigation does not imply that there's been any non- compliance by the supplier." Utility Warehouse, which has more than 600,000 members in its "discount club", said it was "surprised and disappointed" that Ofgem was launching an investigation. Victoria MacGregor, director of energy at Citizens Advice, added: "Measures brought in earlier this year by Ofgem to protect vulnerable customers who are switched to prepay- ment meters are welcome. But… suppliers must have systems and processes to make certain that vulnerable customers are not le without supply." Iresa was ordered to improve customer service prime minister Theresa May and business secretary Greg Clark calling for an end to the exemp- tion. They said the exemption should be reviewed given that the number of customers with suppliers that are exempt from the two schemes has trebled to one in 12 in the past three years. Citizens Advice has also called on the government to review the exemption.

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