BackThe Defensora del Pueblo, Soledad Becerril, recommended the Government to establish a procedure prior to any suspension of power supply to strengthen consumers’ guarantees. This was announced on 18 March 2014 during her appearance before the Joint Committee on Relations with the Ombudsman in order to present the Annual Report 2013. The Ombudsman Office wants –before companies cut off power for non-payment or fraud– consumers to be able to make claims in their defence and the presumption of innocence to be respected.
In a recommendation to the State Secretariat for Energy on 6 March, the Defensora del Pueblo also requested to allow consumers to split the payment of the debt. The recommendation assumes that power supply is essential for a decent life, so its deprivation leads people to a situation of social exclusion. Currently, the suspension of power supply for fraud is carried out after a procedure in which the company itself determines the defrauded amount, without granting a hearing to the person concerned.
The Ombudsman Office has also repeatedly drawn the attention to the mistakes of the companies, which sometimes suspend power supply and claim the payment of the debt to the wrong person. Furthermore, unless the supply is declared essential, the current procedure does not provide for the intervention of the Administration or any judicial body. Therefore, the Defensora del Pueblo has recommended that the intervention of the competent authority is required and also the intervention, in certain cases, of social services to assess the extent to which situations of fraud or non-payment respond to serious economic difficulties.
Furthermore, in the course of her appearance, the Defensora del Pueblo highlighted the large number of resolutions that the Ombudsman Office presented to the Administration in 2013. The recommendations and suggestions increased by 37 % compared to the previous year.
For more detailed information, please consult the document attached below. A Spanish version of the Annual Report 2013 is available on the institution’s website.
Source: Defensor del Pueblo, Spain
