Energy Company Charges

Siobhain McDonagh Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)]

I shall not detain the House for the full eight minutes. I just want to tell Members about an event that I organised in my constituency in January 2012.

I had begun to notice that more and more people were coming to my surgeries to talk about their difficulties in paying their bills. When I started to talk to people who were in debt about what their debts were, arrears of gas and electricity were appearing ever higher on the list. I started writing to charitable trusts, particularly those attached to British Gas and other large suppliers, in an attempt to help those people.

In order to draw attention to the issue, I organised a gas and electricity advice day in my constituency. It was attended by representatives of the big six, Co-operative Energy—which was very new at that point—debt advice agencies, the Royal British Legion, and other bodies that do good work out there to help people. It was also attended by representatives of uSwitch, because I thought that my constituents were, in the main, not people who would know how to go about switching. I thought that it would be anathema to them. After all, few of us who get up and go to work each day want to spend hours trying to decide on an alternative energy supplier. uSwitch was inundated on the day. People—they were mainly elderly, and mainly members of particular ethnic minorities—brought their bills, and cautiously went to talk to the uSwitch representatives. I observed that no one trusted their suppliers to stick to a better deal if they managed to secure one, or felt confident that the wool would not be pulled over their eyes.

We held eight question and answer sessions on a rolling basis with Audrey Gallacher, who at the time was director of energy at Consumer Focus. At the beginning of each session, the same two issues were raised—and 430 people were there that day. Some said, “We know that we are paying more because we do not pay by direct debit, but we do not trust our supplier. We do not want it to have access to our bank account. We would be in economic meltdown if the supplier took large sums from us, so we do not want it to have access to our account. We also know that although we will be racking up credit, because that is the sort of people we are, the supplier will still increase our direct debit.” Others asked, “How do I know that I am not being wrongly charged? How can I understand my gas bill? Do I need to be an advanced scientist to understand what the unit price is, and how the supplier charges me?” That question arose time after time, and it made me more aware of how people felt. Members of the Caribbean community in my constituency, in particular, did not want to be involved with direct debit.

Gas and electricity costs are still one of the major sources of continuing debt among those who come to my surgeries. I encountered an amazing case just a few weeks ago. My constituent Mrs Boakye cares for her elderly mother, who has had a stroke, and has four adult children. She won the jackpot when she was given a social tenancy of a four-bedroom house. All her dreams were realised: she was out of the insecurity of the private rented sector. Her only problem was that her supplier, British Gas, then attempted to take £835 from her account to meet her gas bill. I do not know about other Members, but I could not sustain a direct debit of £835. Certainly Mrs Boakye, as a nurse, could not do so. Her account was put in a spin, and all her direct debit payments began to be missed. It took some time for British Gas to agree that it had made a mistake.

Mrs Boakye is living proof that those who are on tight and limited incomes should not let gas and electricity suppliers have access to their accounts. While that fear and anxiety exist, the people who can least afford it will continue to pay most for their energy.