Truth behind the Winter Payment fuel subsidy

Npower fined £2m over complaints 31October 2011

Npower has been fined £2m by the energy regulator for failing to handle complaints properly.

Ofgem handed down the fine after investigations found that npower had failed to record all the required details of complaints receieved and failed to provide customers whose compalints it could not resolve with some key details about the redress service provide by the Energy Ombudsman.

The provider also failed in some respects to put in place adequate policies and processes for dealing with complaints in an efficient and timely manner, according to the regulator. Ofgem says npower has addressed and remedied all the breaches of the regulations identified.

The move comes after the regulator fined British Gas £2.5m in July this year for breach of the same regulations. Ofgem has also revealed it is investigating the way in which EDF Energy handles complaints.
A spokesperson for npower says a small number of processes were not correctly adhered to.
He says: “Ofgem is now satisfied that all problems have been rectified and we are fully compliant with our obligations to our customers. We have zero tolerance for this type of issue and we’ll continue to work hard to make sure our customers are put first.”

Sarah Harrison, Ofgem’s senior partner for sustainable development, says: “Consumers have a right to expect that energy companies will comply with the standards. Npower failed to do so and although it took remedial action, it has incurred a penalty for failing consumers.

“Energy suppliers now have a golden opportunity to convince consumers that they can be trusted, by getting behind Ofgem’s sweeping reforms for the retail market. This is the quickest way of restoring consumer trust in an industry badly tarnished by poor supplier behaviour.”

Npower, in receipt of information from Government departments reference the subsidy of tax payers money towards Winter Fuel costs, sit glibly at the end of the telephone line and do not address the concerns of customers whose bills they increased by 30%.  What is so insidious is that Npower already knows which of their customer’s bills they were going to increase.  That 30% increase is then explained in a letter to the distressed customer as an act of overwhelming charity to the customer in that subsidy to a select few.

Not a word of truth.  Npower will be paid twice and the tax payer picks up the convoluted arithmetic formula that will see the electrical supply companies profits swell at the expense of everyone.  Like windpower being a viable source of electrical generation, just pure propaganda.