A frugal life is an easy life!

Why do we continue to waste Millions of pounds of taxpayer's money, on quangos that call themselves "Watchdogs", "Regulators", etc?
All of them are, "Standing up for the consumer" - but when it comes down to it, they are doing absolutely NOTHING for the people of Britain!

A regulator, watchdog, etc, is there for one main purpose - wether it is one person or 5000, they should step in and force the business/industry to apply the law correctly and in a timely manner.
Their existance IS NOT to "work with" companies, to establish programs/training that they can then use to avoid working within the law!

Have three examples...

OFGEM - Regulator of the Gas and Electricity industry:
Absolute rubbish!

What have they done about gas bills?
Currently Gas bills are so confusing, that the advisors of British Gas cannot even tell the customer the formula for how they work their own bills out!
The meter reading that's given - called an "estimated reading" despite most people having new accurate smart meters which we have been told for the past two years are more accurate - gives the customer no clue whatsoever about the money charged for their bill.
The meter gives a reading in what exactly?

Gas bills are based on kilowatts per hour which is calculated by each unit on meter, multiplied by a unit rate, multiplied by something for the kilowatts per hour, multiplied by something else depending on which area of the country you live in, multiplied by something else if you have an imperial meter, blah blah blah.
Throw in the variable "unit price" which has no relevance to the price you pay whatsoever.
Add to this, the complications regarding when a British Gas year starts and finishes, (Some staff say it starts in September other staff say it starts in January!) the customer has no chance at all.
OFGEM are doing nothing about this, it's costing people hard earned money as the price keeps rising.

By law, all customer statements and bills should include, at the very least, the formula used to calculate a "unit" price of used gas will cost the customer, including what percentage of each unit is tax.
At present, no prepayed British Gas statements for more than 2 million prepayment customers, include this.
OFGEM don't seem able to grasp why this is an issue!

OFGEM have published a PDF file for advice on "help with your winter fuel bills" It's a cracking read, which would be more use if you printed it off and used it as a dart board!
Here are some snippets of OFGEM wisdom from it;

• "During the winter we tend to use more electricity and gas to light and heat our homes" - We do? Wow!
• "Be energy prepared - Have your current tariff to hand" - Totally irrelevant, as bills and statements show only a unit price, this is applied to a formula (that British Gas staff do not even know and is not shown on annual statements of prepayment customers, as it's supposed to be) before an amount to pay is calculated.
• "Use price comparison services to shop around for the best price" - Who do you think pays these "services?" - The consumer pays them, via increased bills and "Deals" - For every customer a price comparison website/service manage to tempt into changing their provider, the website/service gets a commission.
  Factor in fees for joining/leaving an energy company and it works out almost just the same as remaining with your existing energy provider. A great example is when you become a duel fuel customer, British Gas cold called me the other day, (itself is an offence under consumer laws) and kindly offered me a chance to switch to them for their electricity as well as my gas, saving me a whopping "£15 a year!"
  £15 a year discount for giving them another £500 per year, NOT a good deal!
• "Use a consumer focus confidence code approved switching site" - Great, a quango recommending another quango.... pathetic!
• "Become energy efficient - by installing new heating, boilers and energy efficient devices, you can save money year after year" - Utter rubbish!
  "New boilers (energy efficient) do not save you any money by using less gas" - the words of a high up expert in British Gas' billing department.

CHARITY COMMISSION - Regulator of charities in England and Wales:
Waste of space!

"We're investigating" yet they have no details of anything that has or is being done about a complaint.
Some staff there say it takes 6 months to investigate, others say it has no time frame. At times, communicating with the charity commission is akin to gargling whilst talking to bill and ben! (IE, makes no sense whatsoever)

An individual makes a complaint about a charity, some staff say unless 3000 written complaints come in about similar actions of a charity, they will do nothing, other staff say they investigate every single complaint, so which is it?

If it's a charity acting illegally, the commission say it's a police matter.
If it's a civil matter, then it has to goto another quango or the civil courts.
If it's about how a charity fundraises, then it is the job of the fundraising service bureau, yet another quango.
£29 million a year of taxpayer's money for what?

FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN SERVICE:
You register a financial complaint, it takes months for an "Adjudicator" to pick it up. They speak to an umbrella company (That trains companies in selling financial products, who also pay a fee to the FSA and the ombudsman, so they have a vested interest in not ruling against umbrella companies of this kind) then they refuse your complaint, unless it's something extreme and blindingly obvious they shouldn't have done.
Then if you are not happy with their decision, you can say so and have it heard by an actual ombudsman, who will no doubt do the exact same thing, refuse it unless it's extreme and you have written evidence that it was mis sold for example. Which umbrella companies make sure you don't.

The problem here is that it takes what is a basic legal case, complicates it, has a vested interest in ruling against the individual, then stretches the time taken to come to a decision and increases it to, in some cases, over a year.
Then you end up bringing it before a magistrate in a small claims court anyway, which is what the ombudsman is there to help prevent.

Then there are the ombudsman's "interpretation of the law" - a case I am currently pushing through at the moment is a perfect example.
A company sold PPI insurance, insisting that the policy was taken out anyway, as it could be cancelled with 28 days notice in writing, when the customer asked clearly would there be a charge for cancelling, the salesman said "no"

When the customer came to cancel their policy, there was a charge of £30 to cancel.
This is a clear case of misrepresentation at the point of sale.
Only when it became apparent that the case for a full refund of premiums paid was being put to the ombudsman to decide, the company backed down and offered to waive the cancellation fee.

Lose a £30 cancellation fee or refund more than £300 of premiums for mis selling a PPI policy?

The adjudicating officer at the ombudsman, took more than five months (yes that's 5 MONTHS!) to refuse the complaint on the grounds that the company had offered to waive the cancellation fee! (There are other aspects to the case, this is just one of them)
So both the ombudsman and the company selling the policy now admit to a cancellation fee being applicable and that the customer was told at the point of sale that no fee was applicable.
The case has now been referred to an ombudsman, after more than a year it is still waiting to be looked at!

Now in a civil court using laws already in place, the question is quite simple. Did the company offer the policy by stating that no fee was applicable for cancellation? Clearly yes they did.
Did the company issuing the PPI policy then demand a £30 (it could be any amount) for cancellation? Yes they did, as they offered to waive the fee, once it was clear that misrepresentation was going to be put to an ombudsman.
I would expect the courts to rule that this shows the PPI was mis sold. Refund all premiums due to the individual, possible interest at 8% of total amount owed and pay court costs. Job done.

How many times has the financial ombudsman found AGAINST companies that train other companies (so called umbrella companies) about the selling of financial products on behalf of the FSA?
They refuse to tell the public as they are not subject to the freedom of information act!
Can the ombudsman tell me of another "umbrella company" that exists so I can check the individual company record online at their website?
Sadly no, it is confidential information!
The only information I was told, was that there are currently just over 600 "umbrella companies" that exist - some of them represent a handful of companies protecting them from FSA audits, others have hundreds of companies paying them a fee, to protect them from FSA audit and provide a barrier between being held to account for the way they sell financial products and the customer.

There are many other "regulators" that can be included.
Consumer direct, who filter calls to trading standards, who half the time do not even phone the individual back!
Consumer focus, who duplicate much of what consumer direct does.
All being paid for by our taxation!

Unless a regulator or watchdog, etc, provide enforcement of laws on behalf of one or more customers, then they should be scrapped.
The message is clear - Do the job you were brought in to do, or close down and pass that funding to some other body/the courts to do the job instead.