People urged to check energy bills this month to claim back credit on their account

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Campaigners are urging households to reclaim credit they have built up on their energy account from their provider in order to ‘reset’ direct debit payments that remain high as prices drop.

The ‘Warm This Winter’ campaign, while stressing that customers should not cancel their direct debits as this could lead to higher unit costs being imposed on households, said early summer was the ideal time to reset energy payments for the year ahead.Figures from Uswitch suggest UK energy suppliers are currently retaining more than £3 billion worth of customer credit, with almost a third of UK households (32%) in credit all year.

Warm This Winter calculated that the combined bank interest likely to have been earned by firms from customer credit balances was at least £159 million in 2023 alone.Research by the campaign suggests that 38 per cent of those in permanent credit live in households with low incomes, and who may have cut back on energy use or other essentials because their energy direct debits are too high.It comes amid forecasts that the average household energy bill will fall by another 7 per cent in July when the latest change to Ofgem's price cap takes effect.

Energy consultants Cornwall Insight said they expect the typical household's energy bill to fall from £1,690 a year currently to £1,574 on July 1.This would be £500 less than the cap in July last year, when it was £2,074.