How the f*** are you all managing your electric bills?

[cofingalthetime]

I don't have gas...
Electric has gone up from 139 per month, to 225, and now the latest is 450...

I don't know how I'm supposed to manage.

Do you all pay by DD. I don't want a meter, I had one before, and it was a nightmare, so expensive.

If 450 goes out of my account next month I won't be able to buy food or petrol or clothes

I got the 150 from the council, and paid it immediately into my electric ,b ut that's a drop in the ocean. How are you all managing.

I'm really really scared.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/ have a read of this

@BarbaraofSeville

Sadly they definitely do think there is a total
cap.

A lot of people don't actually engage very much with information provided - and these may well be the same people who don't want to get a smart meter so they aren't looking at the usage daily either. Still about half of all homes do not have smart meters and some people are resistant to them for all sorts of nonsensical reasons they've seen someone put in a Facebook post. (some people are also mad keen to get one and there is a backlog getting them fitted, I know!)

I agree giving the unit price is not perfect either, not least with standing charge being so high but it at least gives over the point that higher usage equals higher bills.

I am not saying this is the case for everyone struggling with bills - clearly this thread shows lots of people are having to now very carefully check their usage and are well informed about what they are using.

But there is another thread running where someone has their immersion on all day every day and had "never got round" to learning how to work it properly. Equally there was one in the property forum where someone was heating a fish pond and complaining they were paying more than the Ofgem cap.

And all sorts of nonsense being spouted about net zero conspiracies as well - doubt these people get the subtleties of the Ofgem price cap either!

If you’re being changed over from income related ESA to UC, you shouldn’t be any worse off because the government has a transitional arrangement so that the level of benefit you were on previously is paid at the same rate. Those who make new claims for UC rather than ESA may find themselves worse off, depending on whether they are in work, in the work related group, or in the support group. It depends on your personal circumstances so don’t just assume that you will be worse off - and if you think you have lost out after the change, query it and get a breakdown because DWP do make mistakes.

Anyone with a disability might be interested to know that there are more cuts to disability benefits on the way - the government is looking at proposals to merge PIP with UC by 2027, which effectively takes it from a universal benefit to help with the cost of disability, to a means tested one which can only be claimed by those on UC.

I agree that the Tories have no time for the sick and disabled. They’ve just reneged on a promise to include disability benefits in the warm home discount scheme - given the current crisis imagine how disastrous that’s going to be for people who have to charge essential disability equipment at home, and for those who are already in fuel poverty. The ultimate goal I think is to have us all back in the hands of the various charities and institutionalised - out of sight is out of mind. 50 years of progress for disability rights wiped out since 2010

Turn off everything in standby mode except the fridge, freezer and router, that's what I did when Avro went under. Who needs the cooker and microwave giving the time as well as the washer on standby all these appliances in standby might be using only a couple of pounds, or pennies, per months but overall they can add hundreds of pounds t the yearly bill.
Same with gas turn the temperatures down to 50 degrees for water and 55 for heating then lower the thermostat to 18 degrees. This is saving me over £300 per year on electric and gas, if I'd left everything in standby mode my yearly bill would be over £900 but now it's just over £600 per year.

EDF tried to put my 93 year old Mother's Bill up by 124% even although she was in credit and I took issue with them. Her payments have now been cut back to what she was paying before 1st April Plus 54% which is all that she should be paying. In spite of the fact that I resolved the issue with EDF I also reported the situation to Ofgem, since their CEO said he was looking at reports that Energy companies were trying to put DD's up by a lot more than the 54%.

Anyone whose DD has increased more than they were expecting should contact their supplier and negotiate to pay what’s affordable for them. Ofgem are currently investigating energy companies who are increasing customers’ DD’s disproportionately to help with their own cash flow problems caused by the crisis. If you suspect this is what your supplier is doing, report them to Ofgem and only pay what you can afford.

We’ve found the best way to manage is via an online account with our supplier and a plan for energy usage over 12 months, reviewed each May. The DD is split into 12 equal monthly payments and are intended to at least break even at the review stage. The online account allows us to check the plan, change the DD amount, or to make one off payments if necessary. Currently on a fixed price deal taken out in November last year, which ends in October 2023 so we’ve doubled our DD payments to try to get ahead and get used to paying more - I realise I’m one of lucky few currently in a position to do this.

I've said for some time that the SC should be incorporated into the yearly usage figures. This would add about 6p to the price per kWh of electric and around 1p per kWh to gas prices. Low users would benefit and high users not as they would pay more per day due to more usage.
In my case if this happened then I would greatly benefit me as my daily usage of electric is around the 4 kWh mark and the daily gas in summer is no more than 2 kWh and winter 35 kWh.

Well we’ve just all been given a 5% pay rise on our basic salaries which in our industry to be honest is absolutely unheard-of but it’s clearly due to new members coming into the business demanding higher salaries plus our competitors are circling wanting our better staff.

i’ve been saying this for months you will never be as powerful as you are today in terms of negotiating a better package for you whatever that looks like whether it’s monetary or flexibility, now is your moment.

By my calculations the fixed rate would be 35.14% higher for electricity and 34.15% higher for gas.

Those figures are lower than the expected price cap rise in October (42%) so might be worth doing.

I'd benefit too, standing charges are about a quarter of my summer bills. It would benefit those on prepayment as well I think? If they hadn't had money to put on the meter then when they do then they get hit by the standing charges.

Ask to go on variable instead of fixed

You might still be on an older fixed tarrif. However energy companies are renewing these at a far higher rate as the price cap has been lifted and wholesale gas gone up. Mine finishes in September meaning I've missed several rises as they are moving to increase every 3mths now instead of, so I dread what the tarrif will go up to. If you go to an energy group on Facebook many can no longer afford to use heating

I looked on their website and they aren't taking new customers

Standing charges have on average doubled. This is to compensate for single fuel usage and the expected drop in use as well as covering the costs of the energy companies who had to unexpectedly take on new customers following the demise of several companies

Hope you checked the standing and unit charges against your previous tarrif as its not the monthly charge thats relevant. They will increase this anyway if your bills exceed your credit.

Rosscameasdoody the problem with the transitional benefit is that it then remains the same until everything else catches up thereby effectively losing your SDP.

I had a similar email last year following a month of high usage (had to use a portable fan heater to get the new lime plaster to set). I simply wrote back explaining the situation and Octopus replied that they were automated emails and only advisory.

I do wonder how many people realise that the 'price cap' is not a maximum bill you will pay but a price per KWH and standing charge that a company can't go over?

I feel that the way the cap is advertised is very misleading.

I agree with this. You could, in theory, reduce your usage to zero but still rack up £20-30 a month in standing charges. If you have the misfortune to be in hospital for 6 months, or staying elsewhere for any reason, you're still incurring costs.

That's a shame. It can only have just happened, my DB switched to them just a couple of weeks ago.

You use an average of more than 70kWh per day?!

@cofingalthetime How long have you been renting this property? The minimum energy rating for a rental property in England is now a grade E and landlords shouldn't be renting out properties with ratings below that i.e. F or G.
Without central heating and insulation even obtaining an E rating will be hard.
Have you been given an EPC certificate for your property (if one has been done in the past 10 years, it should be possible to look it up by inputting your postcode into the EPC website link here Find an EPC
If there is no EPC or the property is below grade E, then you will need to contact Citizen's Advice about the way forward.

You use an average of more than 70kWh per day?!

No, it'll be far more than that because that is the number of units taken from the grid and doesn't include those generated by solar power.

We've cut our energy usage (oh joy of approaching summer) so they're now trying to get me to reduce my DD. I'm inclined to keep inching it up each month so when our fixed term ends Dec, it isn't as huge. I presume there's no risk in doing this? We're with Scottish Power so unlikely to fold and take my excess. We're currently on 190, they're suggesting 140

That's very strange. I didn't think ANY of them were taking NEW customers at the moment or for the last few months. Wonder how your DB managed that? If you know how he did it, you might want to tell people on here? And how much his fixed price was?

You can phone Octopus if you wish to switch to them