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

@Kukdoos

How many businesses will.go under because people won't have the money to spend on days out, holidays, meals out etc. I think its going to have a massive knock on effect on those. It's a joke I am expecting my small business to go bust as a result. I'm in an industry that was shut down during the pandemic, and seen as luxury when people are cutting back on their expenditure.

I was one of the 3 million excluded, and I'm only just clawing out of my financial black hole as a result. This will be the end for me. Until then, I'll limp on, but I'm sure it won't be for long.

I really feel for you and everyone else in your predicament. People who are losing everything because of circumstances totally out of their control, who received no help whilst others did and who have been forgotten about.

I wonder whether letting your house get really cold is false economy, because the boiler then has to work extremely hard to get the house up to temperature when you do put heating on.

Depends how long it's on for. Ours is on a timer. Half an hour in the morning then off, regardless of what the temperature is. Half an hour in the evening then off. It might be going solidly for each of those half hours, but based on the temp when it turns off in the morning it would probably have to be on for an hour before it got the living room up to 18 and the thermostat clicked it off anyway, and then it would still have to come back on regularly to maintain the temperature.

And I also hate being cold, which is why I have a heavy wool jumper and my dressing gown on, with a duvet over my legs, two pairs of thick socks and a hot water bottle while I work.

Are people giving actual energy usage figures to companies each month? Do you tell them the numbers on your meters each month so you get an accurate bill? Mine said I had used £106 on electric and gas last month until I put the figures in and it dropped to £70. They keep telling me their estimate my monthly usage as £140 though and I keep ignoring them. It's never gotten that high, yet. New prices of course will probably change that.

Call your suppliers and discuss what you CAN afford.

Ours was going up from £110 to £310 p/m which we cannot afford a sim on mat leave.

We discussed it and we're going to pay £200 p/m and review in 6 months.

*Call your suppliers and discuss what you CAN afford.

Ours was going up from £110 to £310 p/m which we cannot afford a sim on mat leave.

We discussed it and we're going to pay £200 p/m and review in 6 months.*

But isn't that just pushing your debt into the future?

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun

Well energy must be fucking expensive here in Spain in comparison as my last 3 monthly bills for electricity were 189, 289 and 240. We don't even have any central heating, just cooking, lights, fridge etc and maybe a plug in heater here and there.

I think it is, along with a lot of other European countries. Up to now, we've been quite fortunate in the UK that a lot of essentials, such as food and power have been low compared to other European countries and also in relation to incomes.

I know that many parts of the UK have very expensive housing and also many people don't have enough to cover the basics but that doesn't take it away from the fact that many of us are left with a higher disposable income after basic housing/food and essential bills than a lot of other places.

I was paying £120 pm on a fix, it has now gone on to £170 pm. I was offered a fix about 2 weeks ago for £299 but I decided to stay on a variable. I have just checked again today and the fix they are now offering is £542 per month!!! They are estimating my annual bill in excess of £6 700! Just me and OH and adult daughter here - no heating on during the day, maybe 3 washing loads a week, dishwasher every couple of days, occasionally put the gas fire in the lounge on for a couple of hours in the evening but generally use blankets, hot water bottles etc. It is truly batshit :(

@AllOfUsAreDead

Are people giving actual energy usage figures to companies each month? Do you tell them the numbers on your meters each month so you get an accurate bill? Mine said I had used £106 on electric and gas last month until I put the figures in and it dropped to £70. They keep telling me their estimate my monthly usage as £140 though and I keep ignoring them. It's never gotten that high, yet. New prices of course will probably change that.

Yes, the smart reader is always accurate but because I can do it on the app I do do it regularly. It dropped out DD from £220 to £190

@99victoria

I was paying £120 pm on a fix, it has now gone on to £170 pm. I was offered a fix about 2 weeks ago for £299 but I decided to stay on a variable. I have just checked again today and the fix they are now offering is £542 per month!!! They are estimating my annual bill in excess of £6 700! Just me and OH and adult daughter here - no heating on during the day, maybe 3 washing loads a week, dishwasher every couple of days, occasionally put the gas fire in the lounge on for a couple of hours in the evening but generally use blankets, hot water bottles etc. It is truly batshit :(

Do you know how many KWH of energy you use?

@Troublesometooth

The cost of heating oil today is £980 for 500L. We use that amount over 8 weeks in winter. Then another £240 for electric would bankrupt us.

We use that amount of oil in 8 months. Martin Lewis has a useful checklist on his site for things you can do to cut usage. We used to use a lot more prior to doubling the insulation in the loft, adding double glazing, turning thermostat down and throwing on a jumper, solar powering the water heater in the summer etc.

We've been monitoring our usage - less than this time last year but the cost per kw being quoted on the fix is 3x the current cost for our electricity and more than 4x for our gas!

@99victoria

We've been monitoring our usage - less than this time last year but the cost per kw being quoted on the fix is 3x the current cost for our electricity and more than 4x for our gas!

Guess you need to go on the price cap?

@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

It isn't debt for many paying monthly direct debit, we pay in advance as cash, the bill then arrives quarterly, and our balance in hand goes down to about £650-100. So permanently the SSE have between £100 & £250-300 of our money as 'cash'. Not as units paid in advance, but held as cash in advance of the bill. (cannot have a smart meter as no mobile signal in our kitchen where the meter is). What we can do is monitor our usage, turn all lights off when not in use, boil the kettle and make a pot of tea or a flask with the exact correct amount of water, cook with the microwave rather than the electric oven, turn off all appliances at the switch when not in use rather than leave on standby etc.

Not read the whole thread but ..

I've sat this morning with my bill for February and worked out what it would cost on the new amount in April (not on a fix - so will be paying Shell the price cap amount).
Anyway I then multiplied that by 12 to get an annual amount - Feb usage not as high as winter but lower than summer so hoping it will level out. I can to a figure for usage lower than Shell and I refuse to set my DD any higher than my workings. No fuel debt and I will pay the rebate of £150 from council tax to my Shell account to create a buffer.
Please check your bills and really get Into the maths of then and check what you should pay for your use. If you have debt divide that by the amount of months you want to clear it in and add that on.

You may not need to increase as much as your company is saying.

I work in fundraising for a homelessness charity. Our fuel costs for the housing we provide has doubled since last year to more than £100,000 - this is now the focus of my work, rather than securing funding to house more homeless people - it’s sole destroying

@OrangeBlossomsinthesun

Well energy must be fucking expensive here in Spain in comparison as my last 3 monthly bills for electricity were 189, 289 and 240. We don't even have any central heating, just cooking, lights, fridge etc and maybe a plug in heater here and there.

Interesting article about it here:

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/31/as-uk-households-feel-pressure-how-are-other-european-countries-tackling-energy-crisis

The UK isn't particularly expensive for domestic energy by European standards but industrial energy is much more expensive here.

Just got my estimated increase letters today and I'm looking at an extra £1015 per year combined for gas and electric. As I said in my earlier post I'm on prepayment smart meter and if I haven't got it I can't use it so I'm going to be extra vigilant in what we use and what we leave plugged in etc.

@AllOfUsAreDead

Are people giving actual energy usage figures to companies each month? Do you tell them the numbers on your meters each month so you get an accurate bill? Mine said I had used £106 on electric and gas last month until I put the figures in and it dropped to £70. They keep telling me their estimate my monthly usage as £140 though and I keep ignoring them. It's never gotten that high, yet. New prices of course will probably change that.

Yes I give every month. Their amount is usually around the right figure

Tho weird it this months said was 230. I put in meters as usual and literally got email this am saying usage was 185 so they were £45 above and out 😱

@99victoria

I was paying £120 pm on a fix, it has now gone on to £170 pm. I was offered a fix about 2 weeks ago for £299 but I decided to stay on a variable. I have just checked again today and the fix they are now offering is £542 per month!!! They are estimating my annual bill in excess of £6 700! Just me and OH and adult daughter here - no heating on during the day, maybe 3 washing loads a week, dishwasher every couple of days, occasionally put the gas fire in the lounge on for a couple of hours in the evening but generally use blankets, hot water bottles etc. It is truly batshit :(

Energy prices spiked massively on Monday due to talk of stopping imports from Russia. My renewal quote came through on Monday and I quickly signed up to the fix, as I suspected that fixes would rise. Sure enough, on Tuesday, the fix deal that I signed up for was pulled, and those that didn't fix in time were stuck with higher rates. It's bonkers, but the situation is changing daily at the moment.

@Clarabe1

We can argue with how badly mismanaged this situation has been until the cows come home. I totally agree with what people are saying on this thread but there is nothing we can do about it until the next election. What we need now is a bit of imagination and practicality. My tips are shutting doors to keep the heat in. If you are handy with a needle line your curtains. Old fashioned draft excluders under the doors. Aluminium behind radiators. Heated throws. Layering clothes. Car pooling. Drying washing outside where possible. Keep at least one room warm if you are desperate. User lower wattage bulbs.

Of course there is! They can get rid of "net zero", build nuclear power stations, use North Sea Oil, stop closing mines, start fracking. There is enough coal and gas under the UK to provide enough energy for hundreds of years. What's the point of net zero if peoples quality of life is rubbish in the here and now, with the fantasy of some utopian time when climate change is reduced or stopped by using inefficient wind power (which coincidentally also pays huge subsidises to rich tax avoiding landowners).

Net Zero is anyway not going to happen whilst China and Russia are still using fossil fuels and we are paying to import them and funding wars by proxy through reliance on their coal and gas. We might as well use our own, have some energy security and at least then people will have some quality of life in the here and now. It just takes political will.

@lonelyapple you don’t need to tell me, I absolutely get it. We have our own coal mines, we have gas, we could be self sufficient but the powers that be well and truly fucked that one up didn’t they?

@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?????

This! It's an absolute joke that this is being allowed.

I think its time that pensioners getting the £200 winter payment was means tested. Some pensioners do not need it whatsoever

@Takeawaytonight

I think its time that pensioners getting the £200 winter payment was means tested. Some pensioners do not need it whatsoever

I agree. There are some poor pensioners but there are some very wealthy ones too. That money could be used for people who need it.

@Takeawaytonight

I think its time that pensioners getting the £200 winter payment was means tested. Some pensioners do not need it whatsoever

Totally agree, it should be based on the square footage of the house. If retired people choose to stay in homes built for families then they can pay to heat all that empty space themselves.

My mum lives on her own in a 5 bed, 3 floor, detached house, there have been some lovely 2 bed bungalows up for sale in her estate (she doesn't want to move area which is totally reasonable) over the last few years, but she won't move, she should not be getting the winter fuel payment.