Gas suppliers stockpiling 'millions of pounds'

Around £490 million of customers' money has been stockpiled by gas companies, a survey has found.

According to moneysupermarket.com, a price comparison website, the huge cash float has built up as people's direct debit payments failed to drop in line with gas prices.

Gas companies take up to six months and in some cases a year to review their customers' monthly payments, according to the website.

Moneysupermarket surveyed 2,407 people and found that almost 9 million households are on average £56 in credit with one in eight of those having overpaid their gas supplier by more than £100.

Powergen customers reportedly have the highest amount of cash held with an average of £78. It also has the largest proportion of customers in credit by over £100.

Npower and Scottish Power customers have overpaid more than the countrywide average at £67 and £58 respectively. While British Gas and Scottish & Southern Energy average at £55 and London Energy/ EDF at £46 per customer.

The average amount by which the respondents were in credit to their gas suppliers was multiplied by the number of houses in Britain to reach the £490 million total overspend.

Moneysupermarket.com head of utilities Paul Schofield said six months is an "unacceptable" period of time to overpay for gas.

He said: "Six out of ten customers pay by direct debit and gas suppliers are going to continue to stockpile customers' excess cash over the coming months. You only need to ask yourself the simple question: `Who needs my money most?"'

However, British Gas - which has 10 million gas customers and almost six million electricity accounts - said that, far from sitting on overpayments, its average direct debit customer had a £60 debit on their account.

"This is normal because we would expect customers' accounts to run into debit during winter and credit during the summer; winter consumption is around three times higher," a spokesman said.

"However, over a year the direct debit level is set so it balances out. We think moneysupermarket's findings are spurious."

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