My Dad’s gas/electric bill. How can I help him?

[VillageFete]

Hi,

Just looking for some advice. My dad is late 60’s and is in receipt of state pension and pension credit.

I don’t live anywhere near him so unable to pop round and call British Gas on his behalf.

His bills are £550 per month and he lives alone. There’s simply no way he can afford this or is using this much! His house is a 2 bed semi detached.

I told him to call and check if it’s exact figures or an estimate, it was an estimate. He gave them exact usage and has had a bill again yesterday for £550.

The problem I have is that cognitively, he struggles now. He can’t properly process information and you never know exactly how the conversation will have gone between him and British Gas.

What I do know for sure is that since December he’s paid the bastards £550 per month and they want it again in March. He genuinely cannot afford it on pension and pension credit!

He says he’s spoken to his neighbours (Who both have young families at home) And they pay far less than £550.

Is there an organisation that may be able to help my dad to get to the bottom of this? Or speak to them on my dad’s behalf? It’ll be 2 weeks at least before I can visit him and he’s in a real panic over it. He just can’t understand what’s happening and it’s very difficult to deduce how the conversations between him and British Gas has gone. He is saying though that they are saying they are correct and that’s what he owes.

Some OAP's got an awful lot of cost of living payments which your dad would have received if on pension credit - over £600 last year and more to come this spring and Autumn. In addition there was over £500 winter fuel payment. So there has been lots of extra help although I appreciate with a bill of £550 that is not going to cover everything. I work for Age Uk and we have a team of energy specialists who will visit older people to assess their usage, offer ways to reduce energy usage, sometimes offer free insulation schemes etc. I'm not sure whether they can do a home visit to ring the gas company with him there, but they would absolutely be able to help him make sense of the bill and negotiate on his behalf. So I would ring your local Age Uk and check whether there is a similar scheme operating in his area. They have really helped a huge number of older people in our county.

And also the extra £400 that all household got, so your dad should have received around £1500 in extra government help to help older people. Has he received these? if not he may need to chase them up.

so they are producing estimated bills by the looks of it. BG are awful - I would recommend Octopus

I would make him an online account so you could see the actual amounts that he's using. That's a mad amount to be charged and I would be sceptical that the exact amount used was the same each month. Maybe he was underpaying a long time. If he doesn't have a smart meter then it might be time for that. Is he sending the figures or are BG reading the meter?

When you visit him I would check obvious culprits like the immersion and thermostat settings and adjust accordingly. I have an app that comes with my thermostat (Hive) so it's easy for me to see what time things come on and off. It might be good for you to keep an eye on consumption. I would manually check his meter myself because it's possible that he has misread the meter.

There's an 87yo chap I help out, lives alone, TV on all the time... he was nice enough to let me see his lekki+gas bills recently. IIRC, his total was in region of £300/month before the £67 subsidy we're all getting. 3 bed bungalow, detached. He gos out minimally, his place is toasty. I really hope you can get to bottom of it, OP.

You are all very kind. Thank you so much.

I’m sure he will have received the Government help as he is on pension credit. He doesn’t do online banking though so very difficult to keep up with what he receives and spends.

I think the best thing I can do is speak to them- I just assumed they wouldn’t make it easy.

If this bill is correct, it’s not sustainable, and I have no idea how he’ll continue with this going forward.

@PeekAtYou BG are working off an estimate at this point. Although my dad says he gave them an actual last month and he still has received a bill for £550!

The amount actually owed and the payment taken may well differ wildly if a direct debit was based on previous estimates which are overstayed compared to readings. He probably has a credit on the account.

Set up an online account with British Gas for your dad, do it yourself on his behalf and it will list all past bills with readings stating if they are estimated or actual readings. Get him to sent you a copy of a bill with all his account details on it to set up the online account and a photo of his meter now. Then live chat them with these details. My dad pays by variable direct debit monthly but based on his actual usage, I send readings in once a month and he only gets charged what he's used. They were wanting over £400 a month from him but his bill is never anywhere near that

This makes me so sad! We have a 2 bed and we're paying £100 a month for gas AND electricity and we give meter readings every Sunday to make sure we're paying enough!

Just a dinky 2 bed. WFH, XBox, tumble and laundry, cooking and heating.

You’ve been given great advice already, OP. I just want to confirm that if you ring BG with your Dad and he gives his permission for you to speak to them, you definitely can. My Dad (85) is registered as a vulnerable customer and it’s been helpful. @Babyroobs ’s suggestion to speak to Age UK about an energy assessment would be good-we haven’t done this for my Dad, but Age UK has been very helpful with other matters.
Goid luck. 💐

If you haven't already please set up POA, I really can't stress enough how important this is.

You can do it yourself by downloading the forms. Will cost about £170 for both parts but as he gets pension credit there is another form you can download and he will get at a reduced rate.

This will allow you to deal with everyone on his behalf, as long as you are confident that he has the capacity to understand what you are doing.

You will just need two people not related to you or him to witness. I used a neighbour and family friend who has a 'profession' job.

Can you can cancel the DD and pay the bill when it comes in quarterly. Based on an exact meter reading?

How long ago did he give the reading and how does this compare with the bill date? The latest bill was possibly generated before his actual reading was processed, and a new one might be on the way.

If you feel his capacity is going I would agree with @feelingrubbish2023 and look at talking to him about Lasting Power of Attorney sooner rather than later. You can register this with banks, utilities, DWP etc

In the meantime if he is happy to have you helping asking him to contact all utilities and have you named as someone they can talk to. You could also set up online accounts as pp have suggested. If he has something like hive you could also get the app so that you can see what's happening and usage etc whilst he can use traditional thermostat.

Ring BG with his info and explain that he is vulnerable. Ask if he is on the priority service register and they will probably let you resolve the issue on his behalf. Utility companies aren’t that strict with accounts. If he has DD cancel it as it’s unaffordable until the issue is resolved. Add your email to his account so you can manage it online for him.

I had to help my mum sort out her finances when she began to have cognitive problems - led to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. I do live near her which made it easier but a lot could be done online.

Before her diagnosis, I registered as vulnerable with her energy provider and utilities, I needed her account details but not Power of Attorney. To sort out banking issues was more difficult, I had to take her into the bank ( in the days when there were local branches!) so she could give permission for me to act on her behalf.

I set up up with as many online accounts as possible using a different email address and password to the one I used, just needed her account details so you could do this remotely if you get copies. I used to log on and pretend to be Mum! Mum still got paper bills because as her Alzheimer’s progressed she became reluctant to accept help ( she wasn’t aware there was anything the matter) but as she didn’t really understand them, she never noticed if I changed something.

It is really important to get Power of Attorney while your dad still has enough capacity, then you get it certified by a solicitor so that you can use it. I have done this for myself so now I know my own children can step up if necessary. Without POA, my mums final years would have been more awful that they actually were.

Do a 3 way call to BG on your mobile. Phone them yourself with his details (account etc). Then tell them you are adding him to the call - make sure he is waiting to pick up the phone when you call. Then you can have a group conversation to try and find out what is going on.

You really need to try and work out how much he’s actually using. If they’re basing that on actual usage it’s not going to change until his usage does. Many older people just leave their thermostats on 22 or whatever permanently and don’t understand how expensive it is.

The issue is more likely to be related to his usage and what he has been paying than a specific issue with BG. All of the energy companies are currently charging much the same price.

To get an understanding of what is going on you, or someone needs to have sight of previous bills. A couple of things immediately spring to mind, his bills are being estimated, he has had previous debt on his account, he is using a lot of energy, or a combination. Without access to the bills, you are not going to know what is going on.

POA may be helpful moving forward, but until he lacks general capacity to manage his affairs you wont’ be able to activate it to deal with his energy bill.

If any form of electronic communication is out of the question, could he put his previous bills in the post to you? Once you have had sight of them, you will be able to see what has been going on and then can plan how to tackle things.

it does sound as if it would be helpful if you can have an online account set up for him which you can then use and keep your eye on things. Someone up thread made a good suggestion of a three way call, so that you could speak to BG on his behalf and he can give you permission to do so. But I would suggest that you see his bills before trying to speak to them if at all possible, otherwise it is difficult to be confident that the payment that they are asking for is unreasonable.

As a pensioner he will have received £67/67 a month towards his energy bills. In most cases BG pay this into the bank account off DD customers. He will also have received the winter fuel allowance of £500 for a single pensioner under 80. This will have gone into the same bank account his pension is paid into. As he is on pension credit, he will also have received some additional monies.

Mum’s was £500 in December and also in January
She has heating on a lot as she is in a lot
I paid both bills as I don't want her putting the heating off

I agree with PP who suggests you contact AgeUK.

Good place to start. Best of luck!

Ask him to let you register on the BG app if he gives you his email and account number for bg you can do that, ihave the app for my aunts company. That way you can review usage over the last year and see what is what

@VillageFete I had to call to help someone with v poor English with their energy bill. In the end what I did was called the energy company and added my friend to the call when I got through (can be done on an iPhone anyway). It was all a bit confusing but friend gave permission (sort of, badly), person at energy company accepted it and I continued the conversation, might be worth a try!