Energy Prices

[Empty It]

I genuinely don't understand how they can charge you so much as a standing charge, it'd be the same as the supermarkets charging you a tenner just to get in.

[DA Baracus]

Keep hearing that folk in trouble should call their provider. Folk can be put on a debt plan to ensure their supply doesn't get cut off.

But if someone can't afford their energy, how can they afford a debt plan? Sounds like the debt will just increase and increase, as if you can't afford your energy bills you can't afford your energy bills plus a debt repayment plan.

What a fucking disgusting situation for the country to be in. I saw a thread on Reddit yesterday asking how best to dry clothes in winter, best as in cheapest. Some good tips incidentally, but folk were talking about it probably being cheaper to just buy a load of clothes each week from charity shops instead of using energy for cleaning and drying clothes, and other suggestions included buying winter hiking gear for sitting indoors and only washing inner layers.

Folk are going to die. Not just through cold and starving, but the mental health issues will be huge. Sadly I think we'll see a massive increase in suicides.

Those who got us in to this situation should be jailed for life.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

19 hours ago, flyingscot said:

You have to separate the suppliers out from the generators. The rise in costs is making record profits on the generation side, but in terms of supply most companies are making losses. 

This x 100

[HEY_SIDNEY]

34 minutes ago, Empty It said:

I genuinely don't understand how they can charge you so much as a standing charge, it'd be the same as the supermarkets charging you a tenner just to get in.

The real reason is the % split of the price increase = 74% increase in overall cost is split 54% gas 20% electricity (give or take)

The electricity standing charge increased more than gas to offset the price increase for gas type thing.

Standing charge covers the cost for a company engineer to come out and sort your meter 'FOC'

[RiG]

29 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Keep hearing that folk in trouble should call their provider. Folk can be put on a debt plan to ensure their supply doesn't get cut off.

But if someone can't afford their energy, how can they afford a debt plan? Sounds like the debt will just increase and increase, as if you can't afford your energy bills you can't afford your energy bills plus a debt repayment plan.

What a fucking disgusting situation for the country to be in. I saw a thread on Reddit yesterday asking how best to dry clothes in winter, best as in cheapest. Some good tips incidentally, but folk were talking about it probably being cheaper to just buy a load of clothes each week from charity shops instead of using energy for cleaning and drying clothes, and other suggestions included buying winter hiking gear for sitting indoors and only washing inner layers.

Folk are going to die. Not just through cold and starving, but the mental health issues will be huge. Sadly I think we'll see a massive increase in suicides.

Those who got us in to this situation should be jailed for life.

As Martin Lewis has said we seem to have a zombie government at the minute who seem content to just let this happen. The Government is in recess until September (I think) and whilst Truss and Sunak swipe at each other all we are getting in response to articles about astronomical bills is "We have made help available". That's it. Nothing more. It's abhorrent they are just sitting there seemingly doing SFA.

[HTG]

The challenge here is one for the whole of society. There are plenty who will wring hands, moan a lot but ultimately pay the new prices and leave the "can't pay" group to carry the burden of fighting against all of this. Feels to me like we're in "can pay, shouldn't pay" territory and Truss can shove her tax cuts up her arse. 

[Left Back]

5 minutes ago, HTG said:

The challenge here is one for the whole of society. There are plenty who will wring hands, moan a lot but ultimately pay the new prices and leave the "can't pay" group to carry the burden of fighting against all of this. Feels to me like we're in "can pay, shouldn't pay" territory and Truss can shove her tax cuts up her arse. 

She's clearly off her head if she thinks tax cuts will do anything to fix this.  The people that will need most help won't be paying tax.  She's playing to the gallery of Tory party members (who mostly will be helped by tax cuts but are probably the group that least needs help).  Christ knows what she's going to say when she wins and senior civil servants set her straight on the facts.

[flyingscot]

41 minutes ago, Left Back said:

She's clearly off her head if she thinks tax cuts will do anything to fix this.  The people that will need most help won't be paying tax.  She's playing to the gallery of Tory party members (who mostly will be helped by tax cuts but are probably the group that least needs help).  Christ knows what she's going to say when she wins and senior civil servants set her straight on the facts.

This. The unemployed, carers etc will not benefit from this.

My bill at Christmas time 2022 (using Octopus's crystal ball mode) is predicted to be £300 for the month. Looking back at last year it was £70. Even cutting back it is going to be unaffordable for millions.

[Buttocks Brown]

Obviously everyone is going to face a big hike in energy bills shortly and the poorest will suffer the most, unfortunately.

Round 2 though will be when, in the next couple of years, millions come to the end of their fixed rate mortgage. Interest rates up to 1.75% now and forecast to hit 3% next year. Thousands more each year in mortgage payments on top of the thousands extra on energy bills. There will be two-income households who have lived very comfortably to date suddenly thrown into dire straits financially. 

It will be unprecedented in modern times I think: people are going to be forced into making really quite drastic changes to the way they live their lives.

[dundeefc1783]

55 minutes ago, flyingscot said:

This. The unemployed, carers etc will not benefit from this.

My bill at Christmas time 2022 (using Octopus's crystal ball mode) is predicted to be £300 for the month. Looking back at last year it was £70. Even cutting back it is going to be unaffordable for millions.

Just checked mines and prediction over winter is 

Dec £688

Jan £854 

Feb £750

Mar £700 

So 3k for 4 months. Fucking frightening. 

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Keep hearing that folk in trouble should call their provider. Folk can be put on a debt plan to ensure their supply doesn't get cut off.
But if someone can't afford their energy, how can they afford a debt plan? Sounds like the debt will just increase and increase, as if you can't afford your energy bills you can't afford your energy bills plus a debt repayment plan.
What a fucking disgusting situation for the country to be in. I saw a thread on Reddit yesterday asking how best to dry clothes in winter, best as in cheapest. Some good tips incidentally, but folk were talking about it probably being cheaper to just buy a load of clothes each week from charity shops instead of using energy for cleaning and drying clothes, and other suggestions included buying winter hiking gear for sitting indoors and only washing inner layers.
Folk are going to die. Not just through cold and starving, but the mental health issues will be huge. Sadly I think we'll see a massive increase in suicides.
Those who got us in to this situation should be jailed for life.

Charity shops don't clean the clothes handed in - at best they get a once over with a steamer - and that's just to get any wrinkles out.

[Lyle Lanley]

16 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

2 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Keep hearing that folk in trouble should call their provider. Folk can be put on a debt plan to ensure their supply doesn't get cut off.
But if someone can't afford their energy, how can they afford a debt plan? Sounds like the debt will just increase and increase, as if you can't afford your energy bills you can't afford your energy bills plus a debt repayment plan.
What a fucking disgusting situation for the country to be in. I saw a thread on Reddit yesterday asking how best to dry clothes in winter, best as in cheapest. Some good tips incidentally, but folk were talking about it probably being cheaper to just buy a load of clothes each week from charity shops instead of using energy for cleaning and drying clothes, and other suggestions included buying winter hiking gear for sitting indoors and only washing inner layers.
Folk are going to die. Not just through cold and starving, but the mental health issues will be huge. Sadly I think we'll see a massive increase in suicides.
Those who got us in to this situation should be jailed for life.

Charity shops don't clean the clothes handed in - at best they get a once over with a steamer - about that's just to get any wrinkles out.

Charity shops are starting to put the prices up already. 

[Mark Connolly]

The one positive through this is that at least Boris stayed on as caretake PM to provide leadership

[BFTD]

18 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Charity shops don't clean the clothes handed in - at best they get a once over with a steamer - about that's just to get any wrinkles out.

1 minute ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Charity shops are starting to put the prices up already. 

It's funny how many people assume that charity shops wash clothes before putting them out for sale. The busy shops can be sorting through hundreds of bags every day; they'd need to have their own laundrette out the back to clean that many, and the smaller shops are often staffed by a single person running the till while sorting bags, steaming clothes, and putting items out for sale on their own. Most charities have a written policy that noticeably dirty clothes go to rag collection companies.

Don't know if anyone knows/cares either, but charity shops are on the wane. Their profits have been dropping across the board for the past decade, and more charities are pulling out of retail altogether, as the money just isn't there to make it a worthwhile method of fundraising. It wouldn't surprise me if the only ones left on the high street in ten years are the big guns like Oxfam and Cancer Research. I'm not sure how that stacks with governmental aims of using recycling as a means to minimise items ending up in landfill.

[Todd_is_God]

50 minutes ago, Buttocks Brown said:

Round 2 though will be when, in the next couple of years, millions come to the end of their fixed rate mortgage. Interest rates up to 1.75% now and forecast to hit 3% next year. Thousands more each year in mortgage payments on top of the thousands extra on energy bills.

This will be offset, slightly, though by decreasing LTV %ages due to the housing market continuing to grow.

April's price cap will hopefully be the peak too, with any increase in interest rates above 2.25-2.50% later in 2023 being offset with drops in energy bills over the warmer summer and beyond.

The main drivers of this inflation are energy prices and fuel costs. Fuel is starting to become cheaper (albeit slowly) and as we become more effective at removing the reliance on Russian gas, energy bills will also decrease.

2023 & 2024 are certainly going to be deeply unpleasant for homeowners (as VT says often City Breaks and Summer Holidays may well be put on hold for that period, with the money normally spent on them being swallowed up by energy bills and any increase in mortgage payments), but overall, unless they are mortgaged to within an inch of their lives prior to 2022, most will probably be just about ok going into 2025 and seeing things return to what until now they would consider "normal".

Edited August 11, 2022 by Todd_is_God

[sonsism]

Looking for any advice available.  Moved in a few months ago to my first flat and just kept it going with the current provider on a standard variable.  After the news on Tuesday I had a look at my account and was offered a fixed tariff with a 57p per kWh unit rate for electricity.  There’s a 14 day cooling off period so thought I’d just take it and look more in-depth before the period expires and decide from there.  
 

57p is obviously more than double the cap at the moment but it’s quite a big increase to be paying from now.  Is there anything else I should be looking out for? I’m less concerned about the gas price as it doesn’t get used much (granted that’ll change in winter likely but the building is quite warm).

[Buttocks Brown]

34 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

unless they are mortgaged to within an inch of their lives prior to 2022, most will probably be just about ok going into 2025 and seeing things return to what until now they would consider "normal".

That's the question isn't it? What will normal be and where will interest rates eventually settle?

They were below 1% 2009-2022. The 15 years previous they sat either side of 5%.

Even just 2.5% for the next decade would be really painful if you're early on in your mortgage.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, dundeefc1783 said:

Just checked mines and prediction over winter is 

Dec £688

Jan £854 

Feb £750

Mar £700 

So 3k for 4 months. Fucking frightening. 

 

That's more than my monthly pension...

[s_dog]

On 10/08/2022 at 10:14, Al B said:

Again just to clarify, turns out the bill is 100% correct and I have no issues with the amount (aside from the obvious) or useage. As above, the only thing that's now still annoying me is them just sending an email with an amout owed, no other information and no bill attached, to someone on quarterly billing who then has to log in to their website that barely works, to drill down into the figures on the bill itself to find out it's not actually a quarterly bill at all.

Either bill me quarterly, or don't tell me I'm on quarterly billing. Im fine with either. I'm lucky enough and massively grateful to be in a position where there's no panic, but there are countless hard working people for whom the difference between that bill being the quarterly cost and the (in reality)  over 4-monthly cost, would have huge and potentially tragic consequences.

As much clarity as possible is needed here across the board. If their claim is that they can't do anything about the price, then there are many more ways to help people other than price. Focus on those.

All the conversions & calculations do tend to make a bit confusing. Paying by DD & getting monthly billing is the easiest way to keep an eye on it, but if you don't want to pay by DD the best thing you can do to give yourself some certainty with paying on receipt of bill & quarterly billing is to take monthly meter readings. You've already got the sums you need to work it out what it is in £s (just remember to use the formula that's on your bill to convert your gas units to kWh). Then when your quarterly bill comes in, you'll already know roughly how much it'll be. 

You are spot on with the confusion that bills, emails about bills and amounts owed can be very misleading and confusing. It may be partly down to British Gas taking the account over from the previous supplier, but sometimes their billing is just a bit shit. I left EDF at one point when even though I was paying by DD and giving them monthly readings, their billing was all over the place. For some reason they stopped doing monthly billing and began sending them out at varying intervals and sending emails with amounts owed, which I didn't owe because I paid by DD.

I've helped a few vulnerable people with their bills, but most don't really understand what they're paying. Some have already had the first half of their cost of living payment (think the second one will be in Oct/Nov?) into their bank accounts, which is great, but if a monthly bill of £100 is going to now be £285 and then higher in January, there will be people that used to pay £4-500 per quarter in winter being hit with bills for £1200. I fear its going to be absolute carnage for a lot of people this winter. 

[parsforlife]

1 hour ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Charity shops are starting to put the prices up already. 

They will however begin to see more stock handed in...