Northern Powergrid blunder as customers sent £2.3trillion cheques in error
NORTHERN POWERGRID admitted to giving 74 customers cheques worth over £2.3trillion in Storm Arwen compensation blunder.
BBC Breakfast: Lights cut during interview due to Storm Arwen
The 74 customers with Halifax and Newcastle postcodes received the 13-figure sum cheques after the company was criticised for taking months to process the compensation claims
The energy company is in the process of paying compensation to thousands of customers who suffered power cuts last November.
Customer Gareth Hughes, from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, shared a picture of the eye-watering sum on Twitter asking if the company could afford it.
Mr Hughes was one of the many people affected by the extremely strong winds last November, leaving him without power for more than three days.
The 44-year-old said he was previously sent a cheque for £135 but had complained to the firm that he was entitled to more.
Thank you for our compensation payment @Northpowergrid for the several days we were without power following #stormarwen Before I bank the cheque however, are you 100% certain you can afford this? #trillionpounds pic.twitter.com/z5MNc2Nxl1
— Gareth Hughes (@gh230277) February 12, 2022
He took to social media to share the new cheque for £2,324,252,080,110.
He wrote: "Thank you for our compensation payment, Northern Powergrid, for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen.
"Before I bank the cheque, however, are you 100 per cent certain you can afford this? #trillionpounds."
The tweet has been liked and shared thousands of times with other users joining in to make fun of the error.
One user wrote: "I think you own Northern Powergrid now".
Another added: "No wonder our bills are big!"
READ MORE: Senior Tory denounces BBC funding model and vows to end it
Hi Gareth, Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Please DM us your contact details including address and postcode so we can correct this oversight. thanks, Phil.
— Northern Powergrid (@Northpowergrid) February 12, 2022
The energy supplier confirmed the number of its customers that had received cheques with an incorrect sum and thanked those who were honest about the error.
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: "As soon as we identified the clerical error, which was caused by the electricity meter reference number being incorrectly quoted as the payment sum, we ensured all 74 customers' cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed.
"We have been investigating how this error happened and carrying out checks of previous payments.
DON'T MISS:
Headteacher drove to hotel to confront 'teacher in bed with pupil' [INSIGHT]
McDonald’s forced to remove Chicken Big Mac from menu - here's why [COMMENT]
UK weather: Met Office issues yellow wind warnings [VIDEO]
"All indications are that this was an isolated incident.
"We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologise for the error and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday."
The power company continue to process the thousands of compensation claims they received at the end of last year.
In a statement on Friday, the firm wrote: "Our teams continue to make good progress. We’ve issued 28,000 compensation payments to our customers so far and this week we’ve issued a further 1,500. Our attention remains firmly focused on resolving the outstanding cases which are more complex."