Energy tariffs/price rises. What are you doing to lessen the impact?

[AlternativelyWired]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

I currently pay £140 a month which includes some arrears otherwise it would be £110 a month. If I go on a fixed tariff it would increase by £50 on a 1 year fixed tariff and £80 on a 2 year fixed tariff.

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the best regarding the tariff. I've already stopped using the tumble drier and use a clothes maiden instead (no chance of drying in my garden unless it's summer). The shower isn't electric and just uses the hot water from the tank that gets heated twice a day for an hour. The heating is on minimally with an hour in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon/early evening. It's set at 18 degrees. There are 3 of us with another dc visiting regularly for a few nights. It's a modern house with double glazing and I have thermal curtains on the front door and patio doors. Curtains are always closed once dark. I'm on UC and I can't see it being increased to allow for the energy increases.

Weve turned the heating off and are using oil filled radiators to heat the rooms we are in. Kids have one each in their rooms which go on at dinner time (5.30pm) and off at bedtime (7pm) so their rooms are warm for getting ready for bed and it stays warm overnight. The one in the lounge is on a timer so comes on at 6.30am so its warm when we get up and i turn it off when we leave for school then put it on after school so its warm for the kids. During the day im either busy doing housework or i wrap up in jumpers and a blanket. In the evening DP and I snuggle on the sofa under blankets. At the weekend the one in the lounge is put on as needed as thats where the kids tend to play.

We figure by cutting out the gas (apart from hot water which is about 42p a day according to the smart meter) we can just work on keeping the one bill low rather than both.

I was just about to post that this will plunge us into recession, but I see other posters have beaten me to it.

People will simply stop eating out / going out, stop shopping for new clothes as often, cut back on all discretionary spending in general in fact just to afford to eat and keep a roof over their heads.

And let's face it, many people can't even afford the latter two as it is....hence the necessity for food banks, even for people who work.

That's before we even get started on interest rate rises, which will come as a profound shock to mortgage holders in their twenties and thirties who have never seen rates rise...not to mention all the older people who convinced themselves they'd "made" a fortune on their houses and who thought remortgaging would be a simply smashing idea...after all, they were rich now, right?! (What happened in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties again, anyone remember? Posting keys back through letterboxes...what was that all about, eh? )

Then there's that little matter of the 2008 bailout that we're never going to pay off, or rather we quantitatively eased our way out of....and now all the money we're in debt for due to Covid...

Fucking hell...we're completely stuffed aren't we...

I was thinking of buying a house this year but now, no chance. Far too risky and besides, I won't be able to afford to heat, repair or pay the mortgage off on it in future, so why bother?

I'm staying in my tiny one bed council flat for life now, fuck it all. Let someone else worry about repairs, I'll be all on trying to pay the rent for the next thirty years.

BoredZelda "Check out what Martin Lewis has been saying about this. He has been warning people against moving tariffs especially to a fixed one. He was doing an update after the announcement today so go to the moneysavingexpert website before you do anything."

I still don't get why he advised against moving to fixed before and if the cap is going higher again in Oct, I'm even more confused.

Nobody has yet confirmed how the £150 council tax discount for bands A-D applies to single occupancy households. For example a couple may currently pay £1600 council tax and the single occupant in an identical house next door gets a 25% discount and pays £1200.

With the £150 discount the couple will pay £1450, but will the single person get £150 discount and pay £1050, or will they get 25% off £1450 and pay £1087.50 (saving £112.50 instead of £150).

Because if people fixed earlier, or even now, then they are being charged the higher tariff unit rate during the coldest months of the year when you are chewing through the power.

For most people, the net advantage was to benefit from the current cap in place until April.

@jcyclops

If you supply your meter readings to your energy supplier (ie not smart meters or prepay):

1. Supply a reading on 31st March. If you don't, then your energy supplier will estimate what the readings were on that date in your next statement. If they do this using a straight-line basis then they will underestimate what you used up to March and overestimate what you used from April onwards and you will overpay.

2. Supply a higher reading than the meter actually says. ie. Add a bit to the meter reading at the end of February, and add a bit more at the end of March. then go back to correct readings in April. You will pay for this "added" energy at the lower, pre-April price rather than the higher post-April rates. Obviously you can't take the piss and add massive amounts or your energy supplier will suspect something is wrong.

These will not save massive amounts, but the money is better in your pocket than in theirs.

Number 2 is actually genius, thank you.

@FourTeaFallOut

Because if people fixed earlier, or even now, then they are being charged the higher tariff unit rate during the coldest months of the year when you are chewing through the power.

For most people, the net advantage was to benefit from the current cap in place until April.

Oh I see, thanks. My mother seems to have escaped the higher bills I have because she had a longer term fixed rate, but she's with EDF, and I heard those are the best rates atm.

@Cailleach

I was just about to post that this will plunge us into recession, but I see other posters have beaten me to it.

People will simply stop eating out / going out, stop shopping for new clothes as often, cut back on all discretionary spending in general in fact just to afford to eat and keep a roof over their heads.

And let's face it, many people can't even afford the latter two as it is....hence the necessity for food banks, even for people who work.

That's before we even get started on interest rate rises, which will come as a profound shock to mortgage holders in their twenties and thirties who have never seen rates rise...not to mention all the older people who convinced themselves they'd "made" a fortune on their houses and who thought remortgaging would be a simply smashing idea...after all, they were rich now, right?! (What happened in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties again, anyone remember? Posting keys back through letterboxes...what was that all about, eh? )

Then there's that little matter of the 2008 bailout that we're never going to pay off, or rather we quantitatively eased our way out of....and now all the money we're in debt for due to Covid...

Fucking hell...we're completely stuffed aren't we...

I was thinking of buying a house this year but now, no chance. Far too risky and besides, I won't be able to afford to heat, repair or pay the mortgage off on it in future, so why bother?

I'm staying in my tiny one bed council flat for life now, fuck it all. Let someone else worry about repairs, I'll be all on trying to pay the rent for the next thirty years.

Interest rates are not going back to 80s/90s level. It’s highly unlikely due to changes in the average wage to house price ratio. They will go up, yes, but not catastrophically.

Energy prices are more of a concern. If Russia invades the Ukraine it could be a sustained thing.

@LibrariesGiveUsPower

Yes, there’s going to be funding by way of a council tax cut in April and the autumn, which we will have to pay back over the next 5 years.

Thanks for nothing Rishi!

Yes, it sounds like the most convoluted and useless initiative ever.

Maybe if they go T total in number 10 for the year we will save enough to pay everybody’s energy bills.

And lol to the idea that most people in their 20s and 30s have mortgages to get shocked about.

People in their 20s and 30s should be more worried about landlords passing on the cost of their property empire mortgages onto renters.

Turned down the dial for the rads and water on the boiler.

Trying to dry more washing on airier and not use tumble drier so heavily.

Turn off the kettle before it finally boils as I read once that uses a lot just to tip it over to boiling point so the switch flips off.

Only use the heating for hour in morning and a couple in the evenings, termostat already only set at max 16.

Turn off unnecessary plugs and charge stuff in the evenings before bed so they are not charging overnight for 6hrs.

We do alot of washing, most at 40 and alot of towels/dishcloths etc through the week at 60, have now started washing stuff at 30 and towels etc on 40(will do 60 if someone is ill) I read that 95% of the power a washing machine uses is to heat the water….so I’m hoping the reduced temperatures should help alot in cutting the cost.

Gathering a pile of stuff we no longer need to sell to raise some extra cash to throw at the massive bill I have at the moment (£600).

Looking for other jobs I can do either evenings or weekends that ideally pay weekly(I’m paid a month in arrears which doesn’t help)

I think alot of people are going to be massively in the shit this year due to prices rising.

@PurplePansy05 - I'm with eon too. So I've done some investigation with their rates. I fixed last week at 27p per unit. (12 months) today ofgem have fixed at 28p per unit if you're on variable from 1st April. Thats reviewed again in October by ofgem. So for me, effectively I have got probably 4 months October - Feb 2022 where I'll be paying 27p whilst everyone else will be paying X amount more. So not much of a saving, as I could have had Feb & March at 21p on the variable rate if I hadn't fixed.

[quote Pembertonrd]@DdraigGoch
Nuclear is definitely the way forward. If it's good enough for the French, it's good enough for us

Electricity is v. expensive in France because we pay a high percentage on top for the pension scheme and goodness knows what else.
Our retired ndn used to work for EDF and gets cheap electricity as a perk.[/quote]
Really? The Eurostat figures from near the bottom of this page tell a different story.
www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/France-introduces-price-protection-amid-gas-and-electricity-rises

And the June 2021 figures on the graph on this page:
www.globalpetrolprices.com/France/electricity_prices/

@jcyclops

If you supply your meter readings to your energy supplier (ie not smart meters or prepay):

1. Supply a reading on 31st March. If you don't, then your energy supplier will estimate what the readings were on that date in your next statement. If they do this using a straight-line basis then they will underestimate what you used up to March and overestimate what you used from April onwards and you will overpay.

2. Supply a higher reading than the meter actually says. ie. Add a bit to the meter reading at the end of February, and add a bit more at the end of March. then go back to correct readings in April. You will pay for this "added" energy at the lower, pre-April price rather than the higher post-April rates. Obviously you can't take the piss and add massive amounts or your energy supplier will suspect something is wrong.

These will not save massive amounts, but the money is better in your pocket than in theirs.

Isn't the second thing you have suggested fraud?

There's always one.

Get over it, @DdraigGoch

@jcyclops

Nobody has yet confirmed how the £150 council tax discount for bands A-D applies to single occupancy households. For example a couple may currently pay £1600 council tax and the single occupant in an identical house next door gets a 25% discount and pays £1200.

With the £150 discount the couple will pay £1450, but will the single person get £150 discount and pay £1050, or will they get 25% off £1450 and pay £1087.50 (saving £112.50 instead of £150).

Hopefully, it's per household, seeing as it doesn't cost less to heat a house the same size when there's one person in it instead of two.

Definitely will turn off the heating in the mornings. We'll just have to rush about and hopefully will be ready quicker than normal! Will be speaking to the teenagers in the house about their ridiculously long showers, and no more baths for me (my only real treat anyway)

@QueeniesCroft

I am so so sorry to hear about your circumstances but sadly I also recognise that my thoughts or sympathies will do little to change your situation.

This really really should not be happening in 2022.

Big hugs

I agree with other posters. I can't see how the government haven't seen the knock on effects of this.

We are lucky, in that we're not at the heating vs eating stage.
But I'm already looking at how we can afford it. So yes, extras will go. And it makes me want to stamp my feet like a small child and wail:"it's not fair", because the whole point of everything I've ever done was to have a better life than I had growing up and for my kids to have a better life.

And then I think about people who have cleaners, window cleaners etc and how they will one of the first non essential things people cut back on, which then has another knock on effect.

Here is just one of the lies Johnson’s and Gove told about leaving the EU.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/we-can-scrap-vat-on-energy-bills-if-we-leave-eu-say-johnson-and-gove-a7057146.html?fbclid=IwAR3J3qsf7wWWmMt2dIGqmCcR62djM0_lCGDM5OEt160qHDUli7tdGD3Re6M

‘Johnson’

Is anyone finding their solar panels are helping to fund their heating?

on a tangent.
rental, not owned medium sized flat. After asking for it from the estate management for 1 whole year we got the utility bill. For 6 months, in advance for 2022 q1-2: £7800.
We still don't have 2021 bill. But now I don't even want to see it.

Yes we are aware that prices are rising, but this is over the top.
Yes, we are sorting it out obviously.

@jcyclops Isn't supplying incorrect readings in the interest of saving yourself money fraudulent? It's a clever idea, and don't get me wrong, I don't want the fat cats of the industry to become even richer, but this reeks as bad as tax evasion does and I'd rather people weren't done for fraud. And no, it's not about 'there's always one', sometimes it really isn't worth the risk.

@Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk Thanks a lot for this, it's very helpful xx

[quote 1dayatatime]@QueeniesCroft

I am so so sorry to hear about your circumstances but sadly I also recognise that my thoughts or sympathies will do little to change your situation.

This really really should not be happening in 2022.

Big hugs [/quote]
Thank you (and also the other posters who were so kind).

I'm sorry for spilling my problems and self-pity all over the thread. I shouldn't have, I was just having a difficult day and realising that what I thought was just normal difficulty was actually serious abuse and I'm not coping as well as I usually would.

I'm sorry, I think some time away might be for the best.