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?

Private companies could continue to provide these services but I would like a state option to exist alongside which covers the welfare energy needs but also anyone else who wants to use it. It would have no profits or huge bonuses, the surplus would fund welfare cases as well as be reinvested into infrastructure. This for all “Maslow” services.

Can you give the source for that quote, please? I want to write to my MP about it and would like to cite this.

A lot of this £28 will be the ££ lost by energy companies going bust when it was a free for all to the bottom on fixed rate tariffs. DH forbade me to move our energy to a cheapie FR because he thought there would come a time when they went bust and then we'd have no electricity for months while the other energy companies side stepped wanting to take us.
Instead WE are stuck paying extra for all those that did move and the energy co went bust, so we lose out twice around.

Are these 'happy' countries ones where the majority are paying high rate taxes, or top heavy where a small amount of people are paying high rates of tax to fund a large amount of others high usage of services?

The Australian bank Macquarie basically did a number on Thames water, asset stripped it, didn't pay corporation tax but took billions in loans against it. We should not be selling public services off to foreign companies so they can make enormous profits by running up huge debts. The energy companies and the water companies are just appalling, all they care about is profit and making rich people richer.

A gross oversimplification.

Why is the USA happier than France and Germany?

I'm not annoyed at the people that have been unable to afford their debt. I'm just annoyed that we are basically bailing these suppliers out to allow their profits.

I don't think they should be allowed to add 28 pound to bills to cover this. How is this helping people unable to afford their energy bills, by adding more charges? The whole thing is a joke.

@MarkWithaC it was from the BBC news website.

Also, we were told before that the standing charge was high because it covered the suppliers that had gone bust. That I can accept, but 28 pound on top of that for debt. Err, no.