UK energy giant nPower has this week been hit with a £63 million compensation bill in relation to errors in the company's computerised billing system in 2007. It is believed that as a consequence of these errors a number of gas customers were charged for fuel which they did not use with the situation only coming to light some time later. So what has nPower agreed to do?
UK power giant nPower was this week been effectively forced to agree a £63 million refund to customers who were overcharged due to a technical error back in 2007. It is believed that the company failed to inform customers in the correct manner with regards to price increases which has led to the record compensation bill which equates to around £35 per person affected by the issue.
The UK government will this week receive a report on the UK university fees system which is likely to recommend loosening the current cap of £3,290 on tuition fees and allowing universities to charge anywhere up to £10,000. There will also be a recommendation that universities themselves are allowed to keep all of the annual income which tuition fees provide and those who go above the £10,000 pro forma limit would need to transfer a portion of this into a central fund to support students from less wealthy backgrounds.
A number of superstores and major retailers in the UK were hit by a computer glitch this weekend which effectively knocked out the credit card payment system we all depend on in the UK. It is understood that the situation lasted between 20 minutes and 45 minutes and led to massive queues in many shops in the UK as well as major inconvenience.
Ofgem, the energy industry regulator, has put forward a number of proposals which could revolutionise the UK utility sector and further strengthen the hand of UK consumers. Currently energy firms have up to 65 days in which to notify customers that they have increased their prices while consumers have just 20 days to switch suppliers to avoid these increases. However, the new proposals would turn around the hands of power
Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish Parliament, has today issued a very upbeat statement in relation to green technology and green energy in Scotland. He believes that Scotland could be self-sufficient purely and simply through green energy by 2025 even though a number of his detractors believe this is an unachievable target. However, a number of prominent names in the energy industry believe that Scotland has the potential to produce around 200% of the required energy to operate the country, from the green energy sector.
A report by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers has highlighted the heartbreaking lifestyle which many people in the UK are suffering when looking after sick relatives at home. It is believed that when taking into account the benefits available for home carers some people are working for as little as £1.54 an hour while saving the state around £87 billion a year.
The UK's biggest wind farm development, off the coast of Kent, will be unveiled today although it has been revealed that just 20% of the £900 million expenditure on the project has gone to UK companies. Despite the fact that UK consumers will foot the bill for this new green technology in the years to come only a fraction of the investment in the project has been awarded to UK companies.
Over the last few weeks the UK government has announced a number of changes to housing benefit in the UK which will have a material impact on up to 1 million families. Such is the potential danger of massive evictions in the UK that Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has intervened directly to request that funding is made available to various boroughs in the capital to allow them to assist those who have been inadvertently affected.
The authorities have today issued a warning to UK students amid news that 50 phishing websites have been closed down in the last 12 months which were specifically targeting students and attempting to harvest confidential information from them. It is known that a number of these websites were sending out e-mails purporting to be from the Student Loans Company asking for repayments and confidential details which were then used illegally to empty bank accounts.
