A 73-year-old woman in Ayrshire is fighting a £19,000 bill from Ofgem after regulators claimed her upgraded windows did not match the type declared when she received a green heating grant in 2017. Margaret Beveridge, who installed a ground source heat pump, insists she only upgraded her windows after the system was fitted and feels unfairly penalized for eco-friendly improvements. Despite her MP's intervention, Ofgem refuses to reconsider, leaving her struggling with the debt.
An Ayrshire pensioner is facing a heat pump nightmare after receiving a £19,000 demand from energy watchdog Ofgem for improving her windows. Margaret Beveridge, who lives alone in Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock, has been hit with the fee after regulators claimed her windows don't match the type she declared when receiving a grant for a new heating system nearly a decade ago.
However, the 73-year-old insists she only upgraded her windows after the machine was fitted - and feels she is being punished for trying to make eco-friendly home improvements. She will be almost 80 by the time she finished paying the crippling and 'totally unexpected' debt, reports the Sunday Mail Despite her MP, Labour’s Lillian Jones, helping on the case, Margaret said Ofgem will not budge and appear determined to claw back much of the £33,000 eco grant she was offered in 2017.
She said: “It’s consumed my life for three years. It has been a nightmare and has reduced me to tears at times.
“Dealing with Ofgem has been like dealing with robots. They won’t listen to any arguments, they refuse to share information.
'They said it wasn’t in the public interest to tell me how they’d calculated this £19,000. When I asked for the documents under freedom of information, everything was redacted and made no sense.
'I've been punished for trying to go green and help the planet. “I’ve done nothing wrong, the contractor’s done nothing wrong. It feels like I’m the victim of a clawback scheme. They’ve a hole they have to fill and they’re trying to fill it.
I’m sure I’m not the only one. ” Margaret secured funding from the UK Government’s £23billion Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, which ran from 2011-2022 and helped households and firms switch to green heating. She had her ground source heat pump fitted in spring 2017 and an energy performance survey was carried out. In June that year, she decided to upgrade her glazing.
In 2023, Ofgem selected her for a random audit and a surveyor was sent. A new Energy Performance Certificate was drawn up that gave her a slightly different score than in 2017. As it was different, and Ofgem claimed her windows had been misrepresented in 2017, they told her she must repay £19,000. Independent surveyors who reviewed the second EPC in 2024 found it wrong and withdrew it from the public domain.
However, Ofgem is still insisting on repayment, despite the case even being raised at Westminster. Lillian Jones, Labour MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, said: “I am disappointed and disillusioned by Ofgem’s decision regarding my constituent, Margaret Beveridge.
“She acted entirely in good faith, making a sensible choice as recommended by the professionals and entirely within the guidelines. “The fact that Ms Beveridge is being penalised is deeply troubling, particularly when the regulator that is tasked with protecting consumers appears instead to be pursuing a pensioner for a wholly unreasonable sum she cannot possibly afford “I urge anyone who has been similarly affected to come forward so the true scale of this issue can be exposed.
” An Ofgem spokesman said: “Our handling of this case has been reviewed by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which has upheld our decision.
“We know these situations can be difficult for those affected, and we will continue to work with the resident to resolve this matter as fairly and promptly as possible. ”
Ofgem Heat Pump Renewable Energy Grant Clawback Energy Efficiency
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