Desperately in need of advice please

[Anxious]

I owe Eon a large debt due to arguments over bills, amounts & other problems where because they wanted me to pay off £900 a month I cancelled my direct debit & refused payment until they came up with a sensible payment plan. Not a good thing to do as now I'm hugely in debt & having a lot of issues with them. Eventually I was paying them £200 a month then got a letter to say that it had gone up to £215. I paid this but had huge problems because I couldn't afford it so next payment I went back to £200. I then got a letter to say my next payment was £230 to bring my plan back up to date & unfortunately due to panic I didn't read the rest of the letter just panicked over the amount & if I had then I would have seen where it said pay within 14 days. After managing to borrow £30 off of family, I paid it 16 days later. A couple of days later I started getting calls from them & was god that due to my payment being late they had cancelled my arrangement & now wanted paying in full or £648 a month minimum payment. Neither of these are options I can afford. I am on benefits due to disability & my husband is unable to work as he is my carer, so with 3 children, our budget is very tight. They have estimated my monthly use age as £192 which although high, I said I would pay but I wanted them to separate my debt which they are refusing to do. They want to put in a pre pay meter which would cause me problems & I don't want. Where do I stand & who can I get help from to help me with all of this please? Really sorry it's so long & also as a newbie I should have said hello first

[Inca]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Hi and to LegalBeagles.....try not to panic,I'm sure one of the clever bods on here will be able to assist you,,in the meantime can I ask is the bill for gas or electric or both? How much are they saying you owe in total? What was the disagreement over? .....

[des8]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Hi & welcome to LB.
Firstly as you are disabled and have three children, are you receiving all the assistance available?
Check here https://www.gov.uk/energy-grants-calculator/y
And here http://www.which.co.uk/switch/energy...ergy-customers

If you are struggling to meet repayments of a repayment plan your supplier should consider lowering your instalments, but if you have already failed to keep up with the existing plan they can insist on a prepayment
meter. If a prepayment meter is going to cause problems I suggest you discuss this with them, as if you just refuse they may go for disconnection (unlikely but possible) which will be even more stressful.
Have you tried your local CAB?
Others will probably be along with better advice in a while, but as it's weekend please be patient.

[labman]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

This may sound a stange question, but what is your housing situation - owned, council, housing association, or private rental?

We are in the same situation with fuel poverty, and the Housing Association has specialist advisers who are being a tremendous support to us. At the end of the day, the debt is still there, but we are in the process of applying for a grant to see if we qualify for a chunk, or possibly all of it, to be written off and help with future bills. Your supplier may have a similar scheme, but we had to go to the CEO before anything was done, and that was before the involvement of the Housing ASsociation. :beagle:

[des8]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Labman's post reminded me that there is help in paying of outstanding bills from:
www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk

You don't have to be supplied by British Gas to benefit from this.

[labman]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

I think there are various trust funds which can be tapped into. It's a case of finding the right person to speak to, to take the time to find the right fund. This is where our Housing Association lady was so brilliant.

We are dealing with a section called the 'Priority Assistance Team' for our supplier. I don't know whether yours has similar? :beagle:

[Inca]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

I didn't mention BGEnergy Trust solely because I didn't know they help with debt from other suppliers so Thanks for that little gem of info
Personally,,I would definitely apply for the grant through them,you have nothing to lose except a bit of time filling in paperwork.They can,,and do,pay off debts

[TUTTSI]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Des8 link is broken try this one http://www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk/

[des8]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

By the way, although Eon might insist on a ppm, they cannot just pitch up and install it.They need a court warrant or your permission to access your property, and if they go to court you should be advised of the hearing so you can oppose it if you wish.
If they turn up waving a piece of paper claiming it is a warrant, examine it to make sure it has the court stamp.
If it's genuine & you weren't advised they were going to court you may get it overturned. If it's not genuine you can tell them politely to go away.

[labman]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

We should also remember there are other trusts out there to help with this issue. I'm not aware of what they are, but a Google or trip to CAB or similar should come up with some.

[Anxious]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Thank you so much everyone with all of your help & advice. My apologies for not replying sooner but I recently had a TIA mini stroke (think its stress) & I really haven't felt very well. My first stop is definitely British Gas & in the meantime I will keep paying them my original £200 agreement & hopefully this will stop them jumping in with the pre pay meter. Thank you again all of you. I will get back to you with the results

[Amethyst]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

I know you have said you don't want a prepay meter, but it really does put you in complete control, and they aren't allowed to charge you more than a normal meter (you just lose DD 'discounts' etc).

I would never go back to a 'normal' meter now and I have had prepay for about 7 years now. Prior to that I had direct debit etc and had heart attacks almost everytime I got a bill / annual review etc - once they told me I should pay over £2k a month (bananas). I was dead set against going prepay as well, until I moved to a house which already had prepay - basically we can get our Electric and Gas during the weekly shopping trip - put up to £50 at a time on each and we're a lot more aware how much we use. It is very rare we run out, and if we are feeling a bit poor one week we just adjust our usage a little (ie. putting the washing on the line instead of the tumble drier - I'm terrible for it!). And no one can take anything from our bank or send us any nasty letters etc.

Hope you are feeling a bit better after your TIA. xxxxxxxxxxx

[Inca]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Because of my mobility limitations and my house is in my name I have had to go back to ''normal'' meters but I totally agree with Amethyst..Payg meters are a godsend to some...and the supplier can set it at a rate to pay the arrears too..just make sure (if you go down that route) that the meterfitter doesn't put the repayment rate at stupid levels.

[labman]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

I know you have said you don't want a prepay meter, but it really does put you in complete control, and they aren't allowed to charge you more than a normal meter (you just lose DD 'discounts' etc).

I would never go back to a 'normal' meter now and I have had prepay for about 7 years now. Prior to that I had direct debit etc and had heart attacks almost everytime I got a bill / annual review etc - once they told me I should pay over £2k a month (bananas). I was dead set against going prepay as well, until I moved to a house which already had prepay - basically we can get our Electric and Gas during the weekly shopping trip - put up to £50 at a time on each and we're a lot more aware how much we use. It is very rare we run out, and if we are feeling a bit poor one week we just adjust our usage a little (ie. putting the washing on the line instead of the tumble drier - I'm terrible for it!). And no one can take anything from our bank or send us any nasty letters etc.

Hope you are feeling a bit better after your TIA. xxxxxxxxxxx

LOL - that is so much us at the moment. We have a huge energy bill to pay and can't pay it. They want to put in pre payment meters, but due to my disabilities and illness are exploring other options first.

The reason I'm against them is they take the debt each time you top up as I understand things. Paying by DD, we have control over that. If, for some reason we can't afford to pay we make it up the next month. On a prepayment meter we would be deemed to have voluntarily cut ourselves off. It wouldn't have been voluntary, it would have been at a time when we had no money to put into the meter.

It's a bit of a double edged sword I think. The idea of not being able to be in debt to them is great, and everything else we now have is set up to work like that. I'll keep this thread updated from our side as well as the forms are about ready to go in.

Anxious - please don't stress. It will all work out and you'll still have light and heat whatever happens. It may feel terrible at the moment, but it is not as bad as it may feel.

[Inca]

Re: Desperately in need of advice please

Prepay does make one realise that utilities are priority payments tho.The ONLY reason (and it truthfully is the only reason) I can't have them here is because the gasmeter is in the understairs cupboard and only a foot off the floor and the electric meter is in kitchen cupboard nearly on floor too. My HA wouldn't allow them to re pipe them outside so I was stymied. As I said tho,,I found the electric payg so much easier.