Surely they can’t expect us to pay 240 per month for power!

[Ellie198712]

Just read Martin Lewis’s latest email and it’s predicting average bills of £2900 per year!! Surely the government will need to step in and subsidise this cost. Our current bill is about 100 per month, and this just seems untenable for the vast majority

@HereComesSpringAgain

£240 a month is equal to our sky tv and mobile phone costs

so its a choice we will need to make

Lucky you that you have things you can cut out, many dont have this luxury. But then are you in contract, might not be able to cancel immediately.

We’re about to have the worst cost of living squeeze in several generations, and the government has done very little to psychologically prepare people for that fact.

And this is all on the back of covid where lots of business have used up their emergency reserves.

It's a very scary time. I'm going on maternity leave soon and it will make things a lot tighter for us, but we are very fortunate that we will manage. A lot of people don't have that luxury. By the time April rolls around, we will be paying around £100 a month more than we were this time a year ago. And then another whack in October. That's a hell of a lot of money for a lot of people to find, particularly with the rising cost of everything else too

@Ceci03

I don't understand - forgive me if I am thick - but with Shell and others announcing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profit - why can't they be allowed to absorb the price rise?????

There are concerns that this would discourage Shell et al from their programs of investment in greener fuels.

I'm "pleased" we are on pre-payment smart meters as I can only use what I can afford. I'd hate to see the debt I'd be in paying by direct debit or quarterly. It's going to be an absolute shit show for everyone

The existing big energy suppliers (I understand why the smaller ones could not survive) are still making huge profits

all our contracts will drop off throughout spring/summer

i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating

we need to adjust our mindsets now....as harsh as it sounds, its how many other countries manage. it can be done and we all might be a bit better off in other ways. it doesn't have to be as miserable as we think

@StrangeAddiction

I'm "pleased" we are on pre-payment smart meters as I can only use what I can afford. I'd hate to see the debt I'd be in paying by direct debit or quarterly. It's going to be an absolute shit show for everyone

yes we are too...and the app shows us exactly how much is being used

We can do much better regarding energy for households.
Solar panels, that is what we should subsidise for homes that are well situated. They cost quite a lot, but they can make so many households almost independant of the grid.
Also, more wind turbines.
And I think UK should harvest wave energy, I am not sure why this has not taken on here. Also, tidal ones, the tide here is huge. I am sure there is a way to get energy from this.
In the meantime, here we are! My provider askes me for double the rate to get a fixed rate contract, but I am not expending much more than I used to actually. So I am on the variable tariff and feeling like someone is going to pull the rug from beneath me in a minute.

We already pay £257 a month for gas and electricity. It's going up by £1800 a year. Not a mansion, just a 3 bed detatched house :0(. Bit of a shocker but it is what it is. We refuse to be cold so we'll just have to suck it up. I will be breaking out the thermals tho

You are not being unreasonable, but the government will not step in. They will just ask us to lump it. And morons will STILL vote for them

@Greentime101

The existing big energy suppliers (I understand why the smaller ones could not survive) are still making huge profits

The big energy suppliers are actually making massive losses:

www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/energy-crisis-octopus-energy-facing-22947267.amp

And that was in January, they will be losing even more now.

Blame Putin I'm afraid. The energy markets are going crazy at the moment, they don't like uncertainty.

The good thing is, at least we are going into spring and summer now, so we have some time to think calmly about how we can cut our usage and prepare our homes over the summer months. Hopefully the world will be a lot calmer and other sources of gas and oil will have been brought on stream by next winter to mitigate the effects of this to some extent. But it's going to be a bumpy ride for a while.

Thankfully not nearly as bumpy as that of the people of Ukraine, God bless them. ☹️

@HereComesSpringAgain

£240 a month is equal to our sky tv and mobile phone costs

so its a choice we will need to make

It is not my tv and mobile package so I don’t have the luxury of being able to cut them. My phone is £6 pm and although I do have a basic virgin package I also have my housebound disabled mother who lives with me. She can’t do anything else but watch tv so unless I want her to sit and stare at the wall all day then I need to pay the bill.

What if people just don't pay it because they can't afford to? Will they get cut off?

They'll get put on pre-payment meters, but these will have to pay back the debt as well as paying for new use, so the amout paid per unit will be much, much higher. So they'll be cut off for as many days per month as they can't afford to put credit on the meter.

@LizDoingTheCanCan

Not unreasonable to worry how we'll cope. But sadly very unreasonable to think that the government care enough to do anything about it.

Government money is your money . We are already in the shit because of covid and a pandemic and energy crises have to be paid for somehow.

There is not a bottomless pit .

*you will be pursued through debt collection and ruin credit ratings

and they can fit a pre payment meter*

And energy via a prepayment meter is more expensive, and the customer has to pay extra on top to reduce the arrears. Charging more to the very people who couldn't afford to heat their homes at a lower price is brutal imo.

I hate prepayment meters with a vengeance. There have been 2 fatal fires in my area in recent years, caused by people using candles when their electricity credit had run out and they didn't have the money to top it up.

This going to be brutal for the poorest households, who are more likely to be living in poorly insulated, hard to heat homes.

@riceuten

You are not being unreasonable, but the government will not step in. They will just ask us to lump it. And morons will STILL vote for them

So if they subsidise millions of people for energy costs where exactly will that money come from ?

@1dayatatime
Isn’t Octopus just another reseller? It’s the big guns that are still profitable

www.reuters.com/business/energy/bp-records-highest-profit-eight-years-2021-2022-02-08/

The current energy price cap for average consumption is around £1200 per year or £100 per month, clearly many use much more than this. It will increase to nearly £2k in April. In October it was talked about going to £3k however on current market prices it would need to go closer to £5 or £6k.

This is just average so if you are currently spending £200 a month then double the above figures.

This is completely insane and people will simply go without heating and power.

The big energy suppliers are actually making massive losses:

The suppliers - the companies that sell electricity & gas to us - are making losses. The gas & oil companies who sell it to them (and to elecricity generators) are making huge profits.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/03/surging-energy-prices-fuel-shells-highest-quarterly-profits-in-eight-years

@Ceci03

I don't understand - forgive me if I am thick - but with Shell and others announcing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profit - why can't they be allowed to absorb the price rise?????

Sadly, because they put shareholders profits first, above the need for people to be warm. High profits = good investment. Immoral and part of so much of what is wrong in this Boris theme park.

@HereComesSpringAgain

all our contracts will drop off throughout spring/summer

i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating

we need to adjust our mindsets now....as harsh as it sounds, its how many other countries manage. it can be done and we all might be a bit better off in other ways. it doesn't have to be as miserable as we think

We do have technology on our side and everyone’s first step is to look at every single outgoing to tighten belts. Cut energy use as much as possible by using smart apps .

Grants for energy saving actions .

Then hope for some sort of help for those really struggling .

This before blaming the government..