I am one of 17,000 customers of Brilliant Energy, which collapsed last month. Two weeks ago, Ofgem appointed SSE as the “supplier of last resort” and handed all of us over to them with approval to put us on to its most expensive standard variable tariff. SSE and Ofgem also told me we could not move suppliers until SSE had set up our new accounts. I am furious: this is an increase of 68%, or more than £50 a month.
I have asked SSE and Ofgem how long it will be before I can move. They said it was the administrators, Begbies Traynor, which pass on the account details to SSE and that it could take several months.
When it was first suggested Brilliant Energy might be in trouble, the advice, including from Ofgem, was to not move suppliers if we wanted to protect our credit balances. Had I known I would face such a massive hike in prices without being able to move suppliers, I would not have taken that advice.
RG, Peterborough
The fact that so many small gas and electricity suppliers have collapsed means this is becoming something of a problem for the regulator. When a supplier fails, Ofgem steps in and appoints a new supplier who agrees to take over all the affected customers. As you point out, they are usually dumped on suppliers’ most expensive standard variable tariffs, which just got a whole lot more costly after the price cap was raised on Monday.
Until now, the advice has been to sit tight until the new firm has had a chance to migrate over all the accounts. However, this now comes at a big cost for the consumer, who faces paying a significant price premium – easily 40% – while everything is sorted out. We had a letter this week about failed Economy Energy that made a similar point.
We spoke to Ofgem about your concerns and asked why it was not possible to switch supplier now – which has always been the Ofgem promise. It says you can do so, and there are no exit fees, but adds: “It may take longer to get back any credit balances and bill for the energy used between suppliers – he would still get credit back from SSE even if he moves. We recommend that customers wait until their account is fully set up with the appointed supplier to switch.”
On this advice you tried to switch supplier this week but SSE refused to allow it to go through. You were told to wait a week and to retry then. Take meter readings now and push it through as soon as you can.
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