Why are we paying everybody else's debt?

[Boaee]

About energy.

"Separately, the regulator is also adding £28 to everyone's bill over the year to cover the cost of dealing with £3.1bn of debt that customers owe to suppliers."

This is a joke right?

The fucking suppliers have reported profits.

So we have to pay over inflated unit prices.
Stupid high standing charges.
Vat on the whole bill.
And now 28 pound extra a year because the last government made so many people poor.

I know there is nothing I can do about it, but still, I'm bloody annoyed.

AIBU to dream of being off-grid someday?

I’m with you OP. I always thought when someone went bust it was their supply chain that took the hit. Unfortunately on this occasion it’s us.
Can’t have wealthy investors losing out can we.

It's a captive market. Because of that, they do what they want and get away with it. You can blame the last government all you want but Labour aren't exactly giving any sign of stopping this from happening, so how are they any better.

As it stands right now, it actually looks like they're going to be much worse.

We pay other peoples debt for other things too, I’m not sure why it’s surprising.

But no you’re not being unreasonable at all.

What?? So I might as well not pay my bills and you'll all pay it for me?

Water companies do it too my bill is up yet they are leaving a huge leak pissing away for days gallons of water and money literally going down the drain

Time and time again these industries and sectors privatise the profits but socialise the costs.

You'll find some element of the mass propping up of business costs by customers while profits are raked out by the frew across energy, water, rail sectors

It's so wrong 😔.

I'm afraid it's the joys of the wonderful privatised utilities that we have. Paying their shareholders is more important than improving services, or actually providing half way decent ones. What I find galling is that most of us need a water supply( I mean I don't have a spring in my back garden, do you?), we need gas, electricity, they are essential supplies, but we are screwed over by all the companies. I'm supposed to be able to compare umpteen tariffs for gas/electric, to get a good deal. Ha ha! And the water company don't deal with leaks and don't bait for vermin any more. It's rubbish.
Sorry that's my rant.

Capitalism favours investors. Everything pared back to the bare minimum. Extracting your money at every stage. Measuring a country’s “success” by economic performance rather than happiness of its citizens.

And political parties like Reform positioning themselves against renewable energy do so to perpetuate this trap. Renewable energy is a way for individuals and communities to get out of the stranglehold of energy monopolies.

Also winter fuel allowance was paid for by everyone and dished out to all people over a certain age, effectively subsidising energy conpany profits.

For me it should be illegal to profit from basic needs covered by utilities. 100% windfall tax.

Totally agree with you, it should come out of their profits. Same way that we shored up the banks and they didn’t have to repay it. I’m so sick of it all. Supermarkets making record profits and every week the food bills go up. We live in a time of rampant capitalism and we are being squeezed every way to fatten the profits of the super rich.
I did really hope that Labour would crack down on it all but I’m not seeing any signs of it.

Removing WFA was a start

Yeah I’d like to know whether Keir Starmer is planning to impose this Windfall Tax that he promised? Because I’ve heard nothing about it since Labour came into power. I’d like to be told I’m wrong in assuming they used it as a false promise.

As the general public, we want there to be a safety net, so that 90yo pensioners or single mums with new borns do not get cut off if they can't pay their bills. That emergency provision exists.

It is because the energy companies agree to this safety net, that we pick up the bill.

The autumn budget is the 30th October

YANBU. It's the same with the water companies. At least with energy you can choose your supplier, with water you're stuck with whoever has the contract to supply your area of the country. We have one of the better companies for water, but it's absolutely outrageous that shareholders and fat cat bosses of all these companies continue to rake in great piles of money while the consumer is expected to suck up increase after increase due to their shamefully poor management.

This should come before their profits. As should an obligation to complete any maintenance work needed to keep the infrastructure up and running. I’m looking at you, water companies.

Ok, thanks - good point 😄
Let’s hope something productive happens then.

"something something bare minimum"

If that were true then the capitalist countries wouldn't be the dominant and most comfortable countries to live in.

If you want to talk about extracting money at every stage, maybe tot up how much the government takes from you. Anyone earning over £40k is subsidising the cost of other people and they have no control over the matter.

It's the exact same thing as this and it baffles me that all of a sudden it's now a problem.

No point in complaining/speculating until we know what's going to be happening.

Hopefully it'll be the first in many steps undoing the crap that the tories got up to

@brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

"For me it should be illegal to profit from basic needs covered by utilities. 100% windfall tax."

Couldn't agree more.

I’m not saying I agree, but a lot of insurance companies are investors in water companies (seen as safe investments) so if they don’t get paid then it would affect pensions/annuities. The whole thing is a mess.

This is an entirely different thing to taxation.

The countries with the happiest populations tend to be the ones with high taxes and highly socialised services.

Not the ones where every single experience is low quality because employers pay the least possible wages, do not provide any customer service, charge rip-off fees and then go on to celebrate massive profits with bonuses all round.

Some of the biggest investors in these industries, and therefore taking the profits, are pension providers. Its cyclical system. If everything was government owned and run, the same would apply, but you would beholden to the state instead, which is already effectively bankrupt!

Aye, just one of several things in this country where you're punished for paying your way.