Not everyone has a buffer, right? What happens if you can't pay energy bill?

[thatchersmotorbike]

As someone who has always lived paycheque to paycheque, and even now we have the tiniest buffer at the end of every month. Bills paid, food budget, invoices paid etc. We're left with a small amount and on the last day before payday we do have literally nothing in the bank.

We can't be the only ones left with nothing at the end of the month can we?

And even if you have an extra £300 a month what happens when that gets requested in your energy DD? Am I living in a fantasy world or are there going to be people absolutely fucked by this?

Can I ask for a vote?

AIBU - we have enough savings to see us through a few years of crazy energy price hikes
AINBU - we are left with nothing at the end of the month, or very little, and the price hikes will cripple us if it goes on.

If you have a mortgage but get into thousands of energy debt what do you do?
If private rending what do you do?
If you own outright what?

Is anyone planning to let the debt rack up?

We're ok as we have no housing costs. At the end of every month we have between £800 and £100 left. If we had a mortgage still we would be seriously tightening our belts and would have little wriggle room.

Ultimately not paying means you will be forced to have a prepayment meter installed.

It's a long process but that's what will happen in the end.

The really disgusting thing is it costs more on a prepayment meter so those who can least afford it get screwed again.

It's not on my Experian file. My credit rating rises as I pay off commercial debt but I don't need a good credit rating as I don't want any credit.

Your attotude is just baffling. So are claims that people with money never check their accounts.

Is this a wind up?

While people of course sympathise with people who have no buffer, I don't think you are the best representative of suffering under CoL...

I'm just paying for what I use now which I can afford compared to the DD the energy company wants from me. I don't care if the unit rate is higher.

I was £650 in credit and they wanted £257 a month on top of the government top up.

I moved house so they had to close my account and refund the balance. The same supplier set the direct debit for new house at £295.
I just said I'd pay as I go and every Sunday I pay for the past week which is working out about £25 for both at the moment.

We have been lucky with the weather so no heating on yet.

They get bought by bigger ones as happens and a monopoly appears then the companies exploit people for profit.

I didn't mean people wouldn't use ANY electric or gas.

More that people will have no choice but to use much less electric and heat. So, going to bed early in the evenings to save on heating. Only having one TV in one room, lots of blankets, no overheard lights or gas ovens to cook food. Cold meals, leftovers, or meals like cup-a-soups.

And although you say it's not possible, I suspect there are families out there who will have no choice but to sit in the dark and the cold.

My energy bills have gone up so massively I’m using a food bank for half the month now. I don’t know what I’m going to do when winter hits properly. My phone and internet contract is up at the end of this month so I’ll be telling them to cut my line, I’ll get by without it. Aside from that I’ve cut every single non essential expense out of my life, including me eating more than once a day.

Just to add, I can’t cut electric and gas usage. I’ve three kids, two with additional needs, none of them would cope in the cold and dark. Them being fed and warm and housed is the most important thing. In the mean time I can stand to lose a stone or two before it gets to be an issue, my mental health is taking a pounding and a half though.

I’m fine but usually there are things you can cut back on. TV, music, delivery subscriptions, luxuries like smoking or drinking…. My dad used to do some work with citizens advice with people in debt and he’d discover they’d have things like sky tv and they’d insist it’s a necessity!

I’m between the two OP. I have had enough of a buffer, ie I have prioritised savings for several years which has meant I have built a safety net. A lot of that net was used for covid lockdowns as my industry was effectively shut down, but not enough to qualify for any help. But still chance to build up a bit more since then and I can cope through this winter, using what I have, and up my working hours, to hopefully get more.

I know what you mean about having no gas with a baby OP, I had no heating or hot water when my oldest DC was a baby for over 18 months and that culminated in a burst pipe which flooded the whole house. I didn’t have the money for home insurance, I didn’t have the money for an emergency plumber, so that incident meant we had to turn the actual water off so we went from having no hot water to actually just having no water. And then the mould came.

And this is why companies are so keen to get everyone on smart meters.

And this is why I've refused to switch.

Unfortunately we're about to move house and the new place has smart meters. Annoyingly.

I've had a real saga with SSE over the past 18 months and we're having issues with them again. I'm literally begging them to collect the direct debit and they promise they will, and then don't.... and then they send me letters threatening legal action if I don't pay - you couldn't make this shit up.

Last year they were going to send someone out to change the meter to prepayment but that was after months of wrangling (similar issue over them not collecting payments!!). If it was a smart meter they would have flipped the switch a lot earlier. Thankfully I managed to get a complaint put in and dealt with which stopped them being arses, and stopped the action. If I'd had a smart meter I suspect I'd have been moved over to prepayment and refused to move back.

I've got two autistic DC, one with high needs, and being in the dark would be catastrophic for us. Not to mention the fact that my 13 yr old DS runs around wearing his nappy and nothing else - I can't keep clothes on him even in the depths of winter, so the house needs to be warm to stop him getting ill. He doesn't notice temperatures and can be literally freezing. So hence why I'm not keen on prepayment.

Ah yes, those stupid poor people and their flat screen TVs and netflix subscriptions.

I have Payg maters, if I don't put money on, there's no gas/electric it really is that simple.
I Iive on disability benefits and I make sure there's money for electric at the very least, I have to.

Does that mean you've paid for Experian. If so, there's something you can scrap.

I gave up all my TV subscriptions. Smoking, drinking and obviously my Starbucks drinks.
I saved £0, because I didn't have them in the first place.

@thatchersmotorbike

Might not be on your experian report but WILL be on others. I had a default with NPower for £60 and I had to fight them to record it properly. Came up on my mortgage application.

Download credit karma, you get your credit report and it's free. You will likely see your debt on there. Remember, not all places report to experian and your energy company must be one who doesn't report to experian but will report to either equifax or transunion. Your debt will be on your credit file with one of the credit reference agencies.

Bit of good luck and planning means that we are on a fix until March '24 with electric at 26.7p/kWh and gas at 6.4p/kWh and we were able to install solar power and home battery this year, so we are insulated from the worst of the energy costs. I'm not worried about them.

The hike in interest rates on the mortgage are looming though. We are saving now to reduce our exposure then but, even with our relatively small mortgage of £120k ish, financing it at the forecasted rates will dwarf the increase in energy costs.

The energy companies will just pass the costs of non payers on to the rest of us.

A bit like shop lifting if it is deliberate.

Not sure how to answer this. At the moment I have a little left over at the end of each month (because I budget accordingly), but I have no idea if it will be enough to see me through years of price hikes. Nobody knows how bad it’s going to get?

I’ve increased my savings by cutting down on costs to those absolutely required. I have a large buffer, but times are so uncertain. I’ve cut down energy usage massively to the point that EDF owes me 400. I refuse DD and will only pay for usage quarterly. I don’t intend to switch on
my heating until Jan. Primark’s oodie is doing a a super job in keeping me warm.

It’s not about having no tv is it! If you can’t afford heating then yes Netflix is a luxury. I don’t have sky or Netflix or Disney plus actually even though I could if I wanted as they are not necessities. This is the problem. You can’t rack up a debt for electricity and heating and expect to have everything else.

@thatchersmotorbike the energy trust is not just for people receiving benefits, to apply for the grant you have to work with their debt advice service first though.