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.

I just pay as I go...submit meter reading every 3 months and pay what I owe. Last 3 months has averaged £53 per month. It's my only source of energy too, don't have gas.

Helps that I live on my own, but I work from home too so must be doing something right.

@cofingalthetime you have my utmost sympathy. I live in a village with no gas & until last winter had to use E7 storage heaters and an immersion heater on an overnight timer. It cost £160 per month (averaged over the year) and it wasn't even flipping warm!

I fortunately made the decision to have oil fired central heating put in last summer, as I dread to think what storage heaters would cost now. Of course, the next issue is that heating oil has doubled in price and isn't covered by the price cap in the same way as gas and electricity. Rural dwellers are just stuffed 😕

How much do you consume in kWh?
It will be in your monthly bill and also in your smart meter screen - check at end of the day and make a note.

Your usage sounds high so the first thing is to try and get it lower.

Why are you still running heating? It's late May....most people will be just doing hot water now. Might be patronising but have to ask: are you wearing jumpers, skippers etc in house?

It sounds like you need to prioritise getting to grips with your immersion heater.
make a note of your usage at early evening (before bathtimes) Can you turn the immersion off completely after morning shower tomorrow and then compare your usage at early eve tomorrow?

Do you run:
Hot tub, fish tanks, lizard tanks, lots of computer servers, bouncy castles?

Don't believe the hype.

They don't pay all rent unless you live on social / council housing.

They'll pay up to LHA rates and o ly.on bedrooms you're entitled too which changes dependant on family size.

If you've 2 kids under 6 for example, you'd get payments for a 2 bed as kids can share.

UC is made up of elements.
Standard
Housing
Child
Etc

Standard is for an adult / couple etc.
Mine is £343 or so.
Housing is rent. Mine covers about 70%, I pay the other 30% from the £343
I also get child element of £282.50 for 1 kid.

My total monthly is £980
Rent takes up the vast majority at £550
Food £unknown it goes up every week
Electric of £60
Council tax of £40
Internet of £20

So on and so on.

It doesn't go far and savings and holidays and emergencies and luxuries etc are things to be forgotten.

I’ve upped gas and will do every month if I need to luckily electric still in credit but will keep an eye on that we have smart metre and yes I was very reluctant to get one (the horror stories I actually told them if I get into massive debt because of your metre I won’t be paying you) so far not a problem with ours.

You need to check your unit rates. Fixes are very expensive right now and even if you go onto the standard tariff now, and it rises in October, it could well still be less expensive than signing up for a fix. But no-one has a crystal ball unfortunately.

However, as you have discovered, heating and hot water with electricity is very expensive and a lot of this is due to poor quality inefficient heating installed by landlords who see this as a way to save their own costs, because electric heating is probably cheaper to put in than gas and it saves them the cost of servicing a gas boiler.

So they're effectively increasing their own profits at the expense of their often low income tenants who suffer higher heating costs as a consequence. There really should be rules against this.

Sorry have no advice. If you owned your home you might be able to access grants to improve your insulation or heating, but as a renter you could be stuck. Are there any schemes to help you with a deposit to try and move somewhere with better heating? Perhaps talk to Shelter or www.nea.org.uk. This really is a problem that needs addressing .

For those thinking you’ll be better off not working and already claim UC, you can be sanctioned if you quit work without a valid reason.

Also people generally aren’t better off quitting work and claiming UC, the people that are saying they are will probably be receiving additional elements such as carers/disability/child payments.

another thing to think about if you’re considering quitting work, kids grow up and child payments will eventually stop, meaning your benefits will be greatly reduced and it will be much harder to find work if you don’t work for a number of years..

My friend pays by top up card and she's barely noticed a difference...... I honestly don't know why some people have such big increases. I do know I wouldn't just blindly pay it without questioning it tho. 😬

I was on universal credit for a while 2 years ago, and I was definitely worse off when I went back to work.
It's not fair, but people shouldn't focus on people on benefits getting too much (because they most certainly don't!!) and focus on why workers don't get paid enough.

If you’re on E7 plug-in heaters will cost a fortune. Turn the immersion heater off. We found it cheaper when we were on E7 with storage heaters. When we had normal electric heaters installed and came off E7 we expected it to be cheaper, but it’s not! Even before these price hikes! Now it’s warmer we spend about £2-3 a day. Putting the immersion on for a couple of hours for a bath costs about £2 extra - not giving up my bath!

Electric wall heaters are very, very expensive. Our first electricity bill in this house in 2019 was £180 for 10 days usage. We are also off grid for gas. Could you install a wood burning stove? (You would still need to factor in the cost of logs but the house would be warmer)
You need to find an alternative to electric wall heaters

I used to work for an electricity supplier. Prepayment meters cost you more as a customer due to the infrastructure needed from the cards to the machines in the shops. I believe that people are much more conscious of their electricity usage when using a prepayment meter because they physically have to go and top up or pay online and monitor the meter.

Direct debit gets you the best deal because it is reliable money coming into the bank account of the energy supplier every month. However, you can take control of it yourselves and switch to paying by standing order. DD they take it, SO your bank sends it. You should get the same tariff as the DD but they can't increase your payment, only ask you to increase your payment.

As a company they have a moral responsibility to not let you get into debt. I have just paid a lump sum to my energy company from savings as I was in going into debt and I would rather pay a chunk and keep my direct debit the same. I am on a smart meter and I am with Octopus energy and submit a meter reading every month.

It is a completely shit situation re the cost. My advice would be to look at a move as it would probably work out cheaper in the long run than buying electric radiators and trying to heat your house over the next winter with increased prices.

Have a look at other energy suppliers to see what they are offering in your area tariff wise. You can use a comparison site.

We used heaps, 20.4kwh per day before January (Electric car, three kids, one electric shower) when we fell off our contract. I was able to get a new one at 6.4p gas and 26.7p for elec for two years but the amount of money we were spending was ridiculous.

We sold our old caravan and got a solar array and home battery which was installed just a few weeks ago. Obviously it's still going to bite in the winter but it's saving us a fortune at the moment.

I agree with this. As well as checking your units etc, you need to see if you can cut your usage.

'Forgetting' to use the immersion heater efficiently is a luxury many of us can no longer afford. Likewise turning up the heating instead of putting on slippers and a jumper or tumble drying when the weather is good.

As well as saving you money, the planet will thank you for it. Have a look at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/how-to-get-help-if-you-re-struggling-with-your-energy-bills-/

The fixed rates are crazy at the moment.

The prices have gone up but not to the level you are being quoted. They will rise again in October.

For context, we are all electric. DD has gone from £97 to £135. But we are currently £350 in credit. Happy to let this build as no heating costs just now but will go up in winter.

What is your use in kw per month and are you on single or dual rate (for storage heaters)?

Just had 4 week bill in.
Electricity 185kw 64.68
Gas 353 kW 33.60
Total 98.28
That's with no heating on. I'm at home most of the time. We have really been mindful...we haven't had tumble dryer on.
We are paying £175 a month up from £125.

That seems a huge amount.

What are you using and do you have a massive house to heat?

If you have a smart meter it will show your daily use/ cost. You should be able to work out if it's your heating or cooker that is adding up to £100 a week.

Have you submitted meter readings lately?

Probably because it's summer now and she won't be using any heating so fewer units, but those units cost more.

Anyone coming off a fix set a year ago is likely to see their bill go up by more than double, more if they've chosen a new fix or have debt to pay off. If that's not the case, they're likely storing up big problems for winter when they have to factor in higher usage and a far higher unit rate than they're currently paying.

I have a DD and have moved to the SVR. Last month my credit shrank a tiny bit, this month it grew a tiny bit. My provider (Octopus) has made no move to change it. It helps that I have gas, heating isn't kicking on at all now and I watch what I do re cooking. My bills will go up over the summer because I'll have the kids home from uni, but for me I expect the real hit will come in October when the cap rises again and it starts getting cold.

@PutinSmellsPassItOn
same here both electric & gas on pre pay and I have barely noticed the difference
Although my meters are the old fashioned ones not the smart meters
I will keep on refusing to have these until they break into my house and put one in 😂

Well yeah, if you were on prepay and the costs got higher but the weather got better, it's going to balance out but across the year it will make a formidable difference to the gas and electric budget.

Of course you wouldn't be better off not working. On Uc you still get your rent element included and wages reduce your Uc amount by 55p for each pound you earn, even more if you have kids as you get a work allowance ??

We were very lucky and fixed back in September. We are still careful with our usage for environmental reasons. We try to heat the person rather than the space, our heati g goes off in April and we will try to keep it off as long as possible (normally we last until November). We have heated throws and hot water bottles, turn off everything at the plug, try to hang all washing outside and share baths. We have a crappy old oven and have found an airfryer is far quicker and cheaper to use.

I did live in a single glazed flat years ago with storage heaters and I couldn't afford to run them. I found it cheaper to run a little fan heater and only use one room in the flat.

Absolutely don't sign up to a new deal. Stay on the variable rate but be prepared for it to go up again in October
We are with Eon and we're paying £168 a month for gas and electric. Paid the same amount every month and in summer had a large credit amount that got it through the winter. 4 bed detached house both wfh not very energy savvy
Our rate ended start of the month and to go onto variable it will go up by £100 a month so take the monthly DD to £268
The cheapest fixed tarrif they offered me was over £400 a month
Its still totally shit but we can manage the extra £100 a month

It’s a complete myth that if you’re out of the workforce for any length of time you’ll struggle to get back in there, it always depends on market conditions. Right now we are begging people to not retire or stay in the workforce because unemployment is at 3.4% I believe, the lowest since the ONS began. You could probably throttle your boss with your bare hands and still get another job tomorrow.