To not have gas for 6 months

[MsJD]

I have dual gas/elec. My supplier has written to say that the 400.00 Govt subsidy will end and my DD will effectively double. I cant afford it. I use GAS to heat the house mainly. I could get through to the Winter without using any GAS. I dont want to pay the standing charge. Can I tell them to disconnect and save 6 months standing charge?

I don't know if you can do that. But if you can, then do. We're similar in that only the central heating is gas powered.

I suspect you can't get have it disconnected though.

I really don’t think you can but if you are allowed make sure you’re aware of the costa to disconnect it AND reconnect it before you agree to do it because it could work out more expensive than the standing charge for six months.

I expect there'd be a charge to disconnect and reconnect.

You need to speak to your supplier. At present Octopus say they don’t charge, but they also say that’s likely to change. Other suppliers may already charge. It certainly used to be the case that suppliers had to also remove the gas meter if they were doing this, I don’t know if that’s still the case though. If it is there will almost certainly be a significant cost to have a meter reinstalled if the customer decides to have the gas reinstated at some point. The meters are not owned by the supplier but by a third party I believe, hence the odd requirement re: removal.

What about hot water? Is that also on gas. No hot water for 8 months could get a bit painful. Even if you have an electric shower, 8 months of no hot water in other rooms would get annoying.

I’ve gone without gas for weeks at a time when it’s broken and waiting for repairs and parts.

Electric Emerson water is bloody expensive to run. Could be my system but it’s also takes longer to heat the water than via gas.

Heating pans and the kettle is time consuming and mind numbing boring. Even worse if your bathroom is upstairs.

When the weather heats up and heating is no longer needed, I put the difference I would spend in the winter into a vault and leave it there. (I’m on prepay(. Is something like this an option?

I expect it would be quite costly - particularly reconnection.
I doubt they would simply remove your meter and cap the supply pipe within your property as you could simply buy a meter bypass 'test' pipe off eBay and dangerously reconnect yourself and they would be none the wiser. I expect they would want to isolate your supply outside/dig up the road.
And for reconnecting it would be the same if not worse - they may not deem your existing supply pipe suitable for connecting a 'new' supply to so need to dig up the road/pavement/garden to lay new pipework & may not install meter in same location so you would need to pay someone to alter your internal pipework to connect to the new meter position.

Never mind that they are unlikely do it at the exact time of your choosing - you may want connected in October, they may not be able to fit you in till January

How do you heat water?

Octopus' customer assistance fund take applications for standing charge holidays for (I think up to 6 mths?) for customers in severe financial difficulties. They have also not increased their standing charge this April.

Iirc having your supply disconnected and then reconnected is likely to cost a hell of a lot more than any standing charges you save on.

My friend spoke to her supplier when they wanted to increase the DD and said she couldn't afford to pay any more. They kept the DD the same. This was November last year. It might be worth a try?

And yes this is a good point, you can challenge any DD raises with your supplier. We are coming into summer and usage should go down, so if you call them and tell them you don't accept the DD raise they need to work with you on reaching an acceptable level.

I suspect this is because they are expecting a continuing fall in prices (though won't ever be as low as they once were) so gradually the "debt" will be paid off or they'll implement it on small stages rather than an overnight doubling

Btw, OVO (as an example) charge £160 for disconnection.
Standing charges for gas for 6 months are about a third of that.