With the help of TEAM’s Outsourced Bill Validation Service, Hackney Council has recovered more than £1.1 million in billing errors.
The authority is one of the largest employers in London and is committed to leading the way in the UK’s action on climate change.
TEAM Bureau (Outsourced Bill Validation Service) receives all the authority’s gas and electricity bills. Thousands of invoices are validated every month and where appropriate, overcharges are recovered from the council’s suppliers.
Lauren Nazarko, Project Co-ordinator for TEAM Bureau, said the council had started experiencing billing issues with its electricity supplier in 2014. She said:
“Because of problems with the supplier’s new billing system, Hackney Council, didn’t receive an electricity bill for an 18-month period, which meant we couldn’t validate any billing data.”
She added:
“When we eventually received all of the invoices, we noticed that the council had been paying a lot more than they should have been for its electricity consumption.”
She said the process of recuperating the £1.1 million had involved looking at 2,000 accounts, 144,000 of invoices and hundreds of hours of work, adding…
We’re pleased that we were able to help Hackney Council recover such a large amount of money.
Kamar Zaman, Energy Manager at the London Borough of Hackney, said:
It was a big problem for us at the time. An incredible amount of data needed to be reviewed and we wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of TEAM.
He added:
We’re delighted with the work that has been done to recover such huge savings.