Back Billing Continued and Tax on Savings

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

The Chair of the House of Commons Energy Security Committee has told Money Box that the behaviour of the energy firms is "outrageous" following our investigation into so called back-billing. That's when energy firms send out a new bill for gas or electricity which was used more than 12 months before. Last week we reported that thousands of people have complained that is still going on.

Energy UK, which speaks for the big suppliers said if customers think they are being asked to pay for energy covered by the back-billing policy, they should contact their supplier as soon as possible to resolve the complaint quickly and efficiently.

The Department for Work and Pensions asks executors and families to repay state pensions it has sent to people who have already died. It says it asks for it back to protect public funds, but do you have to pay?

And high interest rates means more people paying tax on interest savings, but how do you know and what are the rules?

Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researchers: Jo Krasner and Eimear Devlin Editor: Sarah Rogers

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 8th February 2025)

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
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0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
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0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense. The brand new series of history's secret heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:39.8	Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.
0:42.7	An ex-pensions minister has told Moneybox that the Department for Work and Pensions is
0:47.0	exploiting grieving people by trying to take back pensions it paid by mistake after their
0:53.1	loved one died.
0:56.5	And why do high savings rates mean you pay more tax on your wages or pensions? But first, since we revealed last week that energy
1:03.1	firms were sending out bills for money, they had no right to ask for, our inbox has been
1:08.6	groaning. Indeed indeed still is.
1:14.7	No energy firm is allowed to send out a new bill for gas or electricity,
1:17.2	which was used more than 12 months before.
1:18.5	It's called back billing.
1:21.7	It was banned by the regulator off-GEM seven years ago.
1:26.3	Last week we reported that thousands of people have complained that it's still going on.
1:29.6	And now, the chair of the House of Commons Energy Security Committee has told Moneybox the behaviour of the energy firms is, and I quote, outrageous.
1:34.1	We'll hear more from MP Bill Esterson shortly.
1:37.1	But first, our reporter who broke the story, Dan Whitworth, can bring us the latest, Dan.
1:41.4	Yes, Paul, as you say, we've had hundreds of people contact us about our story
	...

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