Energy Company Charges

Debate between Albert Owen and Sheila Gilmore

Tuesday 4th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Albert Owen]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That was my next point—that I use the services of my local post office to pay my energy bills, which helps the local community in many ways. We get drawn into using direct debits, because it is a little bit cheaper, but sometimes there is extra social value from using other methods.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend has rightly explained how we can exercise choice and use other options, but such a choice is very limited for many people. He might be interested to know that in a recent pilot for direct payments of housing benefit, my local housing association found that many people did not want to get involved in such things as direct debits, because of bad experiences of payments coming out at the wrong time.

[Albert Owen]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am sure that that issue will be addressed again as the Consumer Rights Bill goes through Parliament. I can remember a time when cash was cool. People went in on time and paid their bill in cash, and that was considered a good method of payment. Today, people are being penalised for exercising that very choice.

The hon. Member for Harlow has singled out companies in his early-day motions, but many companies have good practices. For instance, my supplier gives an early payment bonus to people who pay early by cheque or cash, or in other forms. There are mechanisms that can be used, but they need to be adopted by the whole industry.