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The impact of high energy tariffs, coupled with the cost-of-living-crisis has had a major impact on consumer energy debt. The commercial ramification for suppliers is significant and for customers, struggling to pay off energy debts can be a stressful experience, often affecting both physical and mental health.
The year-round E.ON Next Energy Fund helps households who are experiencing financial difficulties and health vulnerabilities.
Eligible customers with mounting debt are offered payment plans which if completed, result in the debt being cleared in full. In the vast majority of cases, this support enables customers to break a cycle of debt and engender a change of behaviour which results in sustainable, financial stability and reduced anxiety. For E.ON Next the respite provided to thousands of vulnerable customers each year helps to reduce their debt exposure and increase customer retention.
The payment plan approach that E.ON Next takes, encourages financial engagement and ultimately enables customers to break a cycle of debt, which has positive ramifications for them, beyond fiscal stability. Typically, over 80% of customer that receive debt support remain debt-free for at least 12 months after an award was given.
It’s a win-win situation because the respite provided to thousands of vulnerable customers each year helps to reduce E.ON Next’s debt exposure and enhance customer retention. As debt clearance is conditional on customers completing a cycle of payments first (and committing to future payments or setting up an immediate direct debit), there is both a short and longer-term return on investment for the supplier.
Charis can structure schemes which deploy different types of payment plan depending on customer circumstances. API integrations or read-only access to supplier platforms enable us to match inbound payments against payment plan expectations and trigger automated communications or remedial customer engagement, as required.
With the cost-of-living crisis showing few signs of abating, bad debt in the energy sector will be a major problem for the foreseeable future and a range of antidotes will be required to deal with it.
The delivery of new software and application processes this year has enabled us to increase the provision of support. The Charis team has been amazing throughout the transition, facilitating brilliant training sessions for our colleagues as well as assisting customers with their applications.
