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Age UK has denied allegations that it encouraged pensioners to take out expensive tariffs from energy supplier Eon, made by The Sun newspaper this morning.
It “strongly rejects” the allegations that pensioners paid up to £245 a year more than Eon’s cheapest tariff on its recommended deals in 2015, while it pocketed up to £6 million in fees.
Ofgem told Utility Week it is looking into the allegations carefully but has not yet launched a formal investigation: “Ofgem has a track record of punishing firms who mislead consumers and we will look at carefully at these claims,” a spokesman said.
Age UK said: “We strongly reject the allegations and interpretation of figures. The Age UK Fixed 2 Year tariff offers a good deal and was the market leading two year tariff when launched in January.
“When customers contact us they are offered a choice of all four Eon tariffs and many choose the one year tariff or variable option.
“The long term commercial partnership includes a typical commission to Age UK of £10 for each customer. Financial support beyond this is not linked to customer numbers.”
The charity added that although the two-year deal, costing around £1409 per year, was more expensive than Eon’s cheapest rate, it was favourable due to the longer-term certainty it provided.
Eon said that its customers could switch tariffs at any time without a charge being applied and added: “We always work to make sure our tariffs, for all customers, are competitively priced.
“Our current Age UK tariff was the cheapest product of its type in Britain when it was launched, a two year fixed deal, and when we launched our current one year fixed product it was also the cheapest in Britain.”
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