Gas & Electricity

[ganganvince]

I suspect you are spot on, it feels like the govt and energy companies are both sitting on their hands waiting to see who blinks first - energy companies dipping into profits, or govt using (our own) money to bail them out by subsidising the public.

Trouble is the vast profits are being made by the companies that extract the oil who are then charging ridiculous amounts to suppliers thats were action is needed. It is also worth noting the price cap is a maximum chargeable not a mandated price.

 

[Scottyboi]

Interesting how they always quote the energy cap as a value. Obviously the more you use the higher you will pay.
I managed to find out how they set the headline figure. It's based on:-

Gas use 12000 kWh per year
Elecricity 2900 kWh per year
Average people per house = 2.4

We used 20,000 kWh per gas last year, although we aim to cut this by 10-20% this year.

We used well above the average 1000 kWh gas per month even in October 2021 and April 2022.

Jesus just checked and we used 10k kwh in gas family of 4 in a 140 year old end terrace, not touched the heating since mid March.

 

[metalblue]

Millions can’t pay. With that comes
the worry of being cut off though. Im fixed until April - 8 months away - and I’m genuinely worrying about it.

I think one thing the government can do will be to say folk can’t get cut off for not being able to pay. People must pay what they have been paying but beyond that, large negative balances should have no recourse such as prepay meters. We can review it this time next year. At least that would stop people worrying.

 

[west didsblue]

Unless the government acts decisively, the real impact will be much greater than half the population struggling to pay their energy bills. The increased cost of energy will affect business just as much and countless companies will go bust because they will have to put up prices to cover their increased energy costs and the consumers of their products will be unable to afford the increased prices due to having less money because of rising energy bills. This will lead to a spiral of people losing their jobs and having even less money leading to more business failures. At the same time interest rates are going up which will lead to defaults on mortgages and people losing their homes. The next year is going to be carnage - or for a cash rich disaster capitalist a huge opportunity to pick up lots of assets on the cheap.

Truss's tax cuts will do absolutely nothing to address this as the main beneficiaries will be those that can actually afford to pay their energy bills.

 

[Jimmieblue]

Can someone explain why the standing charge is going up at all?

Yes I’d like to know the answer to that too.

 

[Stoned Rose]

So there is an upside to all this then, can they cancel Eastenders and Emmerdale as well.

What will the rags do though?

 

[Stoned Rose]

Useless fucking twats would have done nowt.

That £400 was offered to everyone based on the last increase and estimated October increase, that estimate has proven to be widely understated. Plus another £650 to the hardest hit. Let’s see what they offer once the new PM is installed before we start slagging them off for not doing enough.

Do you know we’re still paying less for our energy than our parents did? I don’t recall me dad coming home from a days work asking if the government had paid the leccy bill.

Source for that last paragraph?

 

[Stoned Rose]

£325 per month. It is scandalous that this is happening. The awful thing is this will be the norm for some time, with many not able to afford anything close to that.

I remember around 10 years ago my combined gas and electric, in a 3 bed semi, was around £55 per month. Something you didn’t have to worry about, even on renewal day as there was always something similar.

Now we are going out to work, with a huge portion of our wages being used for gas and electric. Shouldn’t be that way.

Let’s be honest mate the vast majority of people will just end up setting up a S/O for an amount they can afford.

If literally millions of customers do this, there’s fuck all the energy companies can do about it.

 

[tony coleman]

If you have an old meter with a corrugated rubber pipe, turn it upside down and it’ll stop recording the gas usage. Just make sure you use some gas by turning back now and again, as it’s illegal it’s not something I’d do, a plumber friend told me about this little scam :-).

Back in the 70s my old man used to do this. He'd lay the meter on its side on top of paint can. He'd also slow the revolving disc down in the leccy meter using thin photo negatives and sellotape.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

Let’s be honest mate the vast majority of people will just end up setting up a S/O for an amount they can afford.

If literally millions of customers do this, there’s fuck all the energy companies can do about it.

I hope so pal. I hope that’s what happens.