APPENDIX 11
Memorandum by Help the Aged
1. Help the Aged welcomes this timely inquiry
into the important issue of the disconnection of vulnerable energy
consumers. Fighting the scandal of excess winter deaths and the
blight of cold homes is one of the Charity's highest campaigning
priorities.
2. Help the Aged has only anecdotal evidence—though
it is quite weighty evidence—that older customers are more
likely to "self-disconnect" than get into a situation
where they cannot pay their energy bills. However, we have a growing
anxiety that as increasing numbers of very frail older people,
suffering an increasing incidence of dementia, are encouraged
to live independently at home, there may be a rise in the numbers
of people unable to cope with managing their bills.
3. This adds weight to the importance of
energy suppliers' identifying their vulnerable customers—as
discussed at length in the Energy Retail Association consultation
paper responding to Ofgem. Ideas such as the Priority Care Register
are good, and should occupy a central place in a supplier's relationship
with its customers. We also note that energy suppliers have an
increasing interest in vulnerable groups as part of their obligations
under the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC), which suggests another
potential benefit.
4. The critical action is to make personal
contact with the vulnerable consumer as soon as practicable. Whilst
we welcome the support for the new proposals given by Social Service
chiefs, we lack confidence that hard-pressed social service departments
will have the capacity to intervene promptly. Obviously in the
name of joined-up services, a goal constantly striven for in this
policy area, they should be notified, but the responsibility for
resolving the situation needs to rest clearly on one agency, and
our preference is for that to be the energy supplier.
5. Energy suppliers are increasingly involved
with benefit checks as part of their work under the EEC. As our
older population is so deeply enmeshed in means-tested benefits,
and so alarmingly under-claiming them, this activity should be
increasingly central to actions arising in the event of non-payment.
And the route to resolving problems by Fuel Direct, which has
become a much less utilised instrument, should be re-appraised
in concert with the Department for Work and Pensions.
6. We would like the Committee to enquire
about the numbers of disconnections arising from safety grounds,
to establish whether this is a significant problem, and what help
and support is offered to a customer in these circumstances. Our
hunch would be that many frail and vulnerable older customers
would find this situation difficult to resolve unaided.
7. The Bates case has triggered this present
raft of activity, and with regard to that, we see no logic in
the distinction between winter and summer disconnections. The
"no disconnections" clause for pensioners in the licence
conditions of energy suppliers should be extended indefinitely.
Mervyn Kohler
June 2004
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