Energy firms ordered to pay back £400m to customers

Ofgem, the energy regulator, ordered big six energy firms to return £400million from closed accounts.

17:41 28 February 2014

UK energy regulator Ofgem has found that energy companies owe customers who have moved or switched suppliers refunds which amount to £400million. These are credit for closed accounts that have accumulated over the last six years.

Ofgem added that the minimum amount of money owed is “unacceptably large” and said that 3.5 million domestic and 300,000 business accounts are likely to be affected.

Based on estimates, Ofgem claims that suppliers hold at least £202million from former domestic customers and at least £204million from old business accounts.

Andrew Wright, chief executive of Ofgem, said: "When many people are struggling to make ends meet, it is vital that energy companies do the right thing and do all they can to return this money and restore consumer trust.”

"We want to see decisive action by suppliers, individually and collectively, to address this issue."

SSE, one of the big six energy suppliers, said that it is “happy to work with anyone who has legitimate suggestions” on how to easily and efficiently serve the customers. It said: "Although sometimes customers do disappear and cannot be traced, we always view any credit as theirs and, no matter how much time passes, if they come forward and we can identify an outstanding credit, we will return it to them.”