EON Next - refused financial help to pay off debt

racyguy

Just had a telephone call from the above following my request for help to clear a debt.
Earlier this week I spoke to them and gave them full details of our income and expenditure, ages, disabilities etc.
They have telephoned to tell me that they cannot help via the EON Next Energy Fund.
They tell me that as I am not attempting to help myself by making a claim for Pension Credit they cannot help.
I did try to explain what the reason was for not making a claim but they would have nothing further to say.
Presumably the 800,000 other pensioners who don't claim that benefit will also be refused help.
Going round in circles. 

Ross_Alumni

Hi @racyguy

Thanks for making this post, sorry to hear that you were refused help, that must be very frustrating for you.

If you ever want to receive some advice in relation to what is happening with your energy company, Scope has a Disability Energy Support service that you can read about over on this page. I'm sure the lovely team would be more than happy to talk through your situation.

racyguy

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy Can you not consolidate your pensions to reduce the paper work?  I assume they are not of high value as you would be able to claim Pension Credit. Just a thought.

That would be a dream for me.
All of them are from different companies/employers 
As you say some are low at £8.90 pa before tax whilst the highest is £210 net per month.
All have tax deducted at source at 20%.

Cartini

racyguy said:

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy Can you not consolidate your pensions to reduce the paper work?  I assume they are not of high value as you would be able to claim Pension Credit. Just a thought.

That would be a dream for me.
All of them are from different companies/employers 
As you say some are low at £8.90 pa before tax whilst the highest is £210 net per month.
All have tax deducted at source at 20%.

Hi,

If you don`t mind me jumping in here, and please correct me if I`m wrong, but I`ve gained the impression that you are retired. 

If this is the case, why are you still paying tax on such low amounts?  Shouldn`t these be covered under your Personal Allowance, which is currently £12570?

If I`ve missed a crucial part of the conversation, I apologise.

Andy

racyguy

Cartini said:

racyguy said:

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy Can you not consolidate your pensions to reduce the paper work?  I assume they are not of high value as you would be able to claim Pension Credit. Just a thought.

That would be a dream for me.
All of them are from different companies/employers 
As you say some are low at £8.90 pa before tax whilst the highest is £210 net per month.
All have tax deducted at source at 20%.

Hi,

If you don`t mind me jumping in here, and please correct me if I`m wrong, but I`ve gained the impression that you are retired. 

If this is the case, why are you still paying tax on such low amounts?  Shouldn`t these be covered under your Personal Allowance, which is currently £12570?

If I`ve missed a crucial part of the conversation, I apologise.

Andy

Hi you haven't missed anything. I am 79 and in receipt of the old State Pension.
Yes I have the personal allowance plus another £1260 from my wife. In total I am allowed to have as taxable income £13830 before I pay tax.
Most of that is taken up by my State Pension so I pay tax on all of my other income.

Sue_Alumni

Good morning @racyguy

I'm am sorry that this situation is so frustrating for you.  I think Eon may be referring to the Fuel Direct Scheme . This scheme is available to people on means tested benefits not just PC. 

It may be that you're not eligible for this scheme. Are you able to discuss a payment plan with Eon or you have and their proposals are unmanageable.  Ross has already sign posted you to information on the Scope site and citizens advice also has information about getting help to pay your energy bills. 

racyguy

Sue_Scope said:

Good morning @racyguy

I'm am sorry that this situation is so frustrating for you.  I think Eon may be referring to the Fuel Direct Scheme . This scheme is available to people on means tested benefits not just PC. 

It may be that you're not eligible for this scheme. Are you able to discuss a payment plan with Eon or you have and their proposals are unmanageable.  Ross has already sign posted you to information on the Scope site and citizens advice also has information about getting help to pay your energy bills. 

Many thanks

I have revised our monthly/4 weekly budget plan. Based on that I will be able to meet our current gas and electricity until October. In addition we have set aside savings of just over £300 by October to settle the debt.
Obviously I have had to make some serious changes to the money going out of the bank account each month.
We have reduced our food costs by 33%, closed our mobile telephone account and put a halt for 3 months on any spending on clothes etc.

God only knows what will happen in October when the fuel prices go up again there simply isn't anymore slack in the budget for any further increases. 

woodbine

@racyguy sorry to hear you are still having problems, what will happen in October is that the govt. will pay EON £66.66 a month for six months, you will also get a one off payment of £150 if you are disabled and £300 for being a pensioner, all done without having to apply.
I can see where EON are coming from though, if you won't claim PC (despite being offered help making the claim) why should they use their limited funds to pay your bill ?
Perhaps not what you want to hear but I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Cartini

racyguy said:

Cartini said:

racyguy said:

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy Can you not consolidate your pensions to reduce the paper work?  I assume they are not of high value as you would be able to claim Pension Credit. Just a thought.

That would be a dream for me.
All of them are from different companies/employers 
As you say some are low at £8.90 pa before tax whilst the highest is £210 net per month.
All have tax deducted at source at 20%.

Hi,

If you don`t mind me jumping in here, and please correct me if I`m wrong, but I`ve gained the impression that you are retired. 

If this is the case, why are you still paying tax on such low amounts?  Shouldn`t these be covered under your Personal Allowance, which is currently £12570?

If I`ve missed a crucial part of the conversation, I apologise.

Andy

Hi you haven't missed anything. I am 79 and in receipt of the old State Pension.
Yes I have the personal allowance plus another £1260 from my wife. In total I am allowed to have as taxable income £13830 before I pay tax.
Most of that is taken up by my State Pension so I pay tax on all of my other income.

Hi, thank you.  I didn`t mean to intrude, thank you for clearing my confusion.

racyguy

woodbine said:

@racyguy sorry to hear you are still having problems, what will happen in October is that the govt. will pay EON £66.66 a month for six months, you will also get a one off payment of £150 if you are disabled and £300 for being a pensioner, all done without having to apply.
I can see where EON are coming from though, if you won't claim PC (despite being offered help making the claim) why should they use their limited funds to pay your bill ?
Perhaps not what you want to hear but I hope you understand what I'm saying.

You are absolutely right.
But what I am banking on for October to January is that the fuel cost increases are no more than the £651 cost of living payments. If the monthly bills from October go up by more than £217 on top of what they are now we will be up the river without a paddle.
It's the thought that the October increase will be less than the COL payments so as to give us some breathing space.
What they annoyed me with was their failure to take on board why I cannot make a PC claim due to potential further fraud/compliance cases being started against me. Making a PC is child's play, maintaining it so that it remains legal is not.

calcotti

I do wonder whether it would ever have been worth trying to involve your MP in dealing with PC if their information requirements were disproportionate,

racyguy

calcotti said:

I do wonder whether it would ever have been worth trying to involve your MP in dealing with PC if their information requirements were disproportionate,

Well yes I suppose I could have contacted the MP but the letters from the Pension Service only stated what was required of me.
I actually offered to have my income estimated upwards with an agreement that I would send them the P60's at the end of each year and that they would then send me a payment for the underpayment. Some income would be better than no income. This was refused once again with them stating that it was my responsibility to inform them of any changes on a weekly/monthly basis even if the net amount only went up or down by 1p!
This is why I ended up with two fraud/compliance investigations between 2019 and 2021 - I failed to notify them of any changes. 
Ironically they put me through hell demanding documents etc. - it all finished with them not being able to collect the amount of overpayment for 2016 - 2019 as the Tribunal decided in my favour. So they had another go for the years 2019 - 2021 for the same reasons and me having to provide an enormous amount of documents. For that investigation they were counting overpayments of pennies per week. The end result of that investigation was that the total amount of overpayment was well below the minimum that they could demand that I repay - overpaid less than £27 for 2 years.
That is when I gave up.

L_Volunteer

How are things for you at the moment @racyguy? I want to make sure you receive the support you need and deserve with this.

However, I appreciate that it has been a little while since you last posted on this thread now. I just wanted to check in with you to see how things have been going for you since 

racyguy

L_Volunteer said:

How are things for you at the moment @racyguy? I want to make sure you receive the support you need and deserve with this.

However, I appreciate that it has been a little while since you last posted on this thread now. I just wanted to check in with you to see how things have been going for you since 

Thanks
No change and none expected. Worrying about the future now, as I never expected to be in this situation of not having the funds to pay my debts, putting up with a low temperature in the house as too frightened to put the heating on, not having any lunch due to the costs.
Well I suppose there will be many people worse off than us two.
Not looking forward to next month when the increased gas & electricity DD hits the bank.

L_Volunteer

Thanks for clarifying this for us @racyguy. It sounds like things are really tough for you at the moment.

Would anything, in particular, help this to feel more manageable for you at the moment? We are all here for you, even if that is just as a listening ear 

racyguy

L_Volunteer said:

Thanks for clarifying this for us @racyguy. It sounds like things are really tough for you at the moment.

Would anything, in particular, help this to feel more manageable for you at the moment? We are all here for you, even if that is just as a listening ear 

Thankfully for both of us we have been through rougher times when youngsters back in the 50's. 
Looking back to those times neither of us don't know how we got through them but we did.
I do remember that there was always food on the table. Not seen them for many years but I vividly remember having to peel potatoes for my mum, not just the skin but also the purple dye that had been put on them to signify that they were only for animal consumption! 

L_Volunteer

It sounds like this has helped prepare you then @racyguy. I think it's really true and valuable what you said, you don't always know how you get through the darkest days but you just do because you have to.

Having said that, if anyone does need any further support, please don't hesitate to let us know. We are all here for each other. No one has to go through this, or anything else, alone if they don't want to