A single mum has said she has "got nothing left" after being given an energy bill of more than £1,000 in one month. Deanne Mitchell was left flabbergasted after receiving the massive bill for her gas and electricity which she said has left her relying on foodbanks and struggling to support her young son.
Deanne, 38, from Newport, was previously with a different energy company but was switched to Ovo Energy during the summer. "When I first moved in two years ago the lady that was there before used to have to top up with a card," she said.
"She was in debt so every time I topped up it was eating up the money." Deanne said she switched to monthly payments and had no issues paying her bills for over a year but shortly after moving over to a new company during the summer she received a massive bill which she claims was not correct.
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"I was in £316.90 in credit and they'd been asking me for meter readings but when I got my bill for the period between July 5 and August 4 they had charged me £1,068.96. At first I thought I might be in credit – I work full-time in a school and am not home very often in the day and my bills are normally around £40 a month."
But when Deanne contacted Ovo she said the company told her the bill was correct. She said she was forced to take out a loan to repay the money and has since struggled to afford to feed her five-year-old son.
"They were nagging me for the money and said they would cut me off if I didn't pay it. I've had to go and get a loan of over £1,000 just to pay it off. I was in shock. I have always been in credit and never gone over £60 a month on my energy."
Deanne's energy bill for the last two months since have come to around £40 per month and she said she felt the cause of the astronomical July bill was down to an error with her meter, which she said now displays differently to how it used to. Despite explaining that she could not have used that much energy in July she said the company have not given her any answers and that she doesn't know where to turn to.
"It used to be a long number on the meter and now it looks like it's resetting itself every month. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. At one point they even told me on the phone to see it as a good thing if it turned out I was owed money back. Is that going to help me put food on the table for my son now? I just paid it as being in debt affects your credit rating. I had £500 put aside per month for food and things and now they've left me with nothing. They've just told me they'd look into it. I've rang every week and it was only this week they've looked into it. There's no way I used all that energy – it was the summer so I didn't have the heating on anyway and was only using my tumble dryer."
If her bill issues weren't enough Deanne said she's also had to cancel her direct debit payments as the company wanted to increase her monthly bill to £150, which she says is far more than she would use. "I've got nothing," she said tearfully. "I'm relying on handouts and going to foodbanks. It's embarrassing. I work full-time and it's so hard already. I now worry about leaving my lights on in the house. I'm just in a bad situation. I've obviously got the loan to pay back as well. We're all struggling in the middle of a cost of living crisis and I don't know who to call or what to do."
Ovo Energy said Deanne's opening reading with the company was higher than the reading brought over from her previous company which had caused her balance to rise. A company spokesman said: "We’re sorry to Miss Mitchell for any concern this may have caused. We’ve reached out to Miss Mitchell to request an up to date meter reading so we can look into her case and provide a resolution.”
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