{"id":234675,"date":"2025-10-30T20:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234675\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T20:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:48:12","slug":"energy-regulator-ofgem-to-wipe-millions-of-debt-with-slight-increase-to-bills-money-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234675\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy regulator Ofgem to wipe millions of debt with slight increase to bills | Money News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Up to \u00a3500m in energy bill debt is to be cancelled by regulator Ofgem as it aims to tackle record levels of arrears. <\/p>\n<p>As many as 195,000 bill payers could be helped by the write-off in the first part of Ofgem&#8217;s proposals to reduce debt and prevent it rising to such highs again.<\/p>\n<p>Only a small proportion of the record-high \u00a34.4bn debt mound in the energy system will be erased. Up to a third of this, between \u00a31.1bn and \u00a31.7bn, is never paid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/money-latest-personal-finance-consumer-sky-news-13040934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Money blog: Major bank loses 23,000 customers to rivals<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Consumers engaging with a debt advice charity or making some contribution to their bill arrears or ongoing energy use are set to benefit.<\/p>\n<p>Eligible customers will also be identified and contacted automatically by suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>How much will it cost?<\/p>\n<p>Bill payers will fund the debt cancellation by paying an estimated extra \u00a35 a year, equalling about 42 pence a month, from 2027, Ofgem said.<\/p>\n<p>This measure is better than the current system, Ofgem said, of spreading the debt across everyone&#8217;s bills or writing it off entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Spreading the debt has added \u00a352 to an annual bill, the regulator added.<\/p>\n<p>So the measure announced on Thursday will mean bill savings overall by reducing the amount customers pay towards debt-related costs.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme is likely to take effect &#8220;early&#8221; in 2026 with full policy documents published in the coming weeks, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Another proposal<\/p>\n<p>MPs of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, however, have called for energy firm profits to pay down the debt.<\/p>\n<p>Energy bills have risen significantly as wholesale oil and gas prices have risen massively after Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-istock-stock-file-generic_7002382.jpg\" alt=\"\"  aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img excluded-image\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-poster\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                3:36<\/p>\n<p>              The average annual energy rose by more than expected in October. <\/p>\n<p>The rush in the West to wean off Russian imports and sanction the country, as well as ongoing geopolitical tensions, means prices have remained elevated.<\/p>\n<p>Fossil fuel-producing companies enjoyed record profits as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Changes when you move house<\/p>\n<p>Changes for when people move into a new property are to be trialled as part of the effort to prevent debt reaching the current highs again.<\/p>\n<p>Credit could be added to a smart meter or changed to prepayment mode for a new tenant or homeowner, so the new residents could have power while getting an account set up with a supplier.<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>At present, bills build up under &#8220;anonymous&#8221; accounts until the resident registers with a supplier. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to \u00a3500m in energy bill debt is to be cancelled by regulator Ofgem as it aims to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-234675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}