Examination of Witnesses

Part of Energy Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:59 pm on 17 January 2013.

Alert me about debates like this

Jenny Saunders: NEA has for some time tried to highlight the difficulties that low-income customers in particular have had in engaging with the competitive market. That is partly because of the offerings to them—the lack of good deals available, particularly for people on pre-payment meters—but also because of their trust in the market and their legitimate fears that they might move to a worse deal. We found that when people were switching on the doorstep, for example, they quite often did not understand the offerings and were switching to something that left them worse off.

Having something on the face of the Bill to introduce transparency and simplicity would be very welcome. Going beyond that, we would advocate support for  local, trusted intermediaries who are able to explain and to engage people in the marketplace. That is something that DECC is currently consulting on, and we have strongly suggested that, as well as having a network of agencies at local level that are encouraging people to switch, that network should also be encouraging them to take up energy-efficiency measures and looking at their benefits and levels of income, because a lot of people in fuel poverty will not be maximising their incomes through the benefits system. There are some welcome opportunities, but there are difficulties. We will see how effective some of the schemes are that are being funded through a DECC grant aid for collective switching. How effective will they really be at engaging the poorest because, as I say, they have traditionally not benefited from tariffs?