Code of Practice minimum standards on Payment of Bills
| Published date | 08 April 2021 |
| Year | 2021 |
| Energy Sector | Electricity retail |
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Annex 1a: Code of Practice minimum
standards on Payment of Bills
This Code of Practice minimum standards outlines the minimum actions
required to fulfil the obligations detailed in the Condition 30 of the Electricity
Supply Licence and Condition 2.12 of the Gas Supply Licence and other
relevant licence conditions. This Code of Practice should be no more than two
clicks from the homepage on the supplier’s website.
Definition of Debt
“For the purposes of the Code of Practice on Payment of Bills only, debt will
be defined as any amount which remains unpaid outside the payment terms in
the supplier’s terms and conditions. For example, if a customer’s payment for
a bill is due within 14 days from the date of the bill, then this amount would be
defined as debt if it remained unpaid from day 15.”
Identifying customers in difficulty
a) Distinguish, so far as is reasonably practicable, those Customers who may
have difficulty in paying bills through misfortune or inability to cope with credit
terms (“Customers in difficulties”) from other Customers in default;
(Condition 30, 3 (a) Electricity, Condition 2.12.3 (a) Gas).
In order to fulfil this requirement suppliers must:
form relationships with advice giving organisations and charitable
organisations which seek to help customers who are, or may be at risk
of, having difficulty paying bills. In particular, suppliers should form
relationships with organisations representing those groups covered by
section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act.21
21 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/47/section/75
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seek permission from the relevant advice giving organisations to share
their contact details and publish the up to date list of said contact
details on their website.
proactively seek to identify and communicate with customers having
difficulty or at risk of having difficulty paying their bills. This should be
done at an early stage in order to prevent the build up of debt.
use interactions with customers to improve customer insight data to
help identify customers having difficulty, or at risk of having difficulty
paying their bills.
use customer records to identify those who have experienced difficulty
in the past and offer early intervention to prevent debt building up.
increase customer awareness of debt advice services and provide
proactive sign posting to advice services where they may receive
assistance such as benefits entitlement checks.
ensure appropriate training is given to all staff who come in contact
with customers so they may identify customers at risk of having
difficulty paying bills. They will ensure all staff who have contact with
consumers, including sales, billing, credit control, customer service and
field staff etc are aware of the need to identify customers having or at
risk of having difficulty paying bills and ensure all relevant services are
offered.
encourage customers having or at risk of having difficulty with
payments to self-identify to utility companies.
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