To worry that people think the price cap means unlimited energy

[Shortjanet]

I've read quite a few comments here where posters seem to think fixed or capped energy prices mean that you can pay a set or limited amount for unlimited energy. It's quite worrying to think how much debt people might run up. The way the headlines are describing it as "bills capped to £x" or similar is helping to fuel the misunderstanding (no pun intended) I think. AIBU to wish the media were being clearer that caps and fixes apply to each kWh used and standing charges, not the total you can pay.

Well more fool them.

If they've got the time to go on Facebook, they've got the time to find out for themselves. Literally Google it.

The level of stupid in this country is embarrassing.

I think people also get confused because they are comparing it to phone contracts where you have a flat fee per month provided you keep to your usage.
They need to understand with electricity they have some control to bring things down by being careful, or the ability to go over by being wasteful.

It's the price of a KWH of energy - plus a fixed daily charge.

In January 22 - it was 4p for gas and 21p for electricity per KWH
At the moment, it's 7p for gas and 27p for electricity
In October 22, it's going to 15p for gas plus 52p for electricity

So the more you use, the more you pay

I agree, it's a good straightforward understandable explanation.

They should just include a leaflet that says this with every bill

And a diagram

I was surprised to read posts on various articles and forums where people didn’t understand what a fixed tariff meant. They thought that the monthly cost was fixed so it would not change no matter what they used. Many people just don’t get that it refers to the unit price not the monthly direct debit payment.

Absolutely. Mortgages, credit cards, tenancies, marriage Vs cohabiting....there is so much people are not taught but should be somehow.

But if people think it's like a phone contract or Netflix, what do they think the meters are for the clue is in the name?

After all, most people have water meters, and many people buy petrol/diesel so it's not like paying per unit is a completely unknown concept.

Although, we don't seem to have heard from the 'at least petrol hasn't gone up, I put £30 in every week like I always have' brigade yet.

To make it worse. If you used no energy today and no energy after the price cap rise you would probably still pay more as the standing charges for simply being connected are going up

🙂 My job involves explaining stuff to people who have limited understanding of my profession . Not a teacher though!

My 'green grocer' confidently predicted they could sell me carrots and potatoes for a very cheap price for the next 2 years and I went with them.

They overpromised....

It's more like a pay as you go phone where the price for a minute phone call goes up and also there's a daily price for just having a phone, thats gone up too

All that is taught in schools. Under Careers and PSHE. Marriage and cohabitation are on the RE GCSE paper too.

People really don't understand
I saw a post on Facebook from a newspaper, some article about how often you wash pjs and towels
Aside from the thousands of comments that were "daily obviously" good luck with the new energy prices there were loads saying
"Well I'll just buy more pjs, it doesn't mean I use more electric washing them if I only wear them once as I'll still only wash them once a week if I buy more"
They weren't getting that you will because you're washing more stuff

Plenty of people in this country do not have very basic maths skills. It is not a moral failing and shame on you for mocking them. We should have sympathy for them and make an effort to ensure they can understand with simple explanations like @Sooverthisnow demonstrated above.

To be fair maths is taught in schools, this is still quite low level maths. They start algebra in primary, have you looked at year 6 Sat's? I'd say they are harder than all the Financial points raised such as mortgages and bills which do all the maths for you and show you the workings. Why are so many pupils not learning when the curriculum is actually complex?

Really? You're calling people who are perhaps just not quite as intelligent or well educated as you "fools"? And you think everyone who googles has the numeracy skills to be able to fully understand what they find? Are you aware that half of working age adults in the UK have the maths skills of a primary school pupil? And that people don't generally deliberately choose to not have maths skills, they simply find it really hard to understand.

I didn't realise that - I guess we can hope that the mumsnetters of the future will have a better grasp of these things. That's really good!

It is literacy as well, numbers in context. Worrying!

Yes I've also seen people on Facebook comments thinking that everyone will pay a set fee of £2500 meaning that someone with a 1 bed flat would be paying the same as a 5 bed house. I guess it's difficult to put kwh capped at xpence plus standing charge into a headline so they go with the average bill figure and that's all most people take on board.

I've found a lot of people 'switch off' when you try to tell them about this, about ways of saving energy and the price cap. I do worry that come winter that people are going to be caught out.

Gas use has been low over summer - so people on prepayment meters or who get quarterly bills are going to have gas that is at least twice as expensive as it was in January.

You see it constantly though - “I’ve fixed at £200 a month!” - as if they can do what they want and only be charged £200 a month no matter what.

Although mostly a good thing if the cap goes back down I’m concerned now that usage will go back up and we will face blackouts. That’s a real worry as I understand it.. depending on how severe the winter is, we may not have enough energy.

It might be taught now, but it wasn't when I was at school. I don't even know what PHSE as a subject is. I wasn't taught about mortgages, credit cards, marriage or cohabitation. I did learn about interest and compound interest in my maths GCSE but that's pretty much all the financial teaching I had.

Should be taught in maths.
By maths teachers.

It's applied maths and physics.

Energy costs 25p per KWH. A XBox is 200 watts. How much money does it cost to run per hour?

But you were taught skills on how to read and research. You cannot possibly be taught everything you need to know ever by the age of 16. At some point adults needs to be responsible for finding out these things for themselves.