Fuel may go up to £2500 or £3000 in October

[crossstitchingnana]

My God. Just read this on BBC news website. In part to do with the conflict. This is horrendous how are people going to manage?

Is this based on the average.

I think it would be easier to understand if it was stated as a %.

At the moment we are paying £300 a month so over that already as we are high users so I don't know what impact it will have on us.

Will we end up paying £450 or £600 a month? I have no idea.

From the title I thought you meant at the pumps - thought it sounded a bit steep for a litre.

No, sorry energy I should have said. And yes, this is the average yearly bill prediction. From April we're already predicted to be paying £2650.

Well if we did not have a government that was so obsessed with 'clean' and unreliable fuel sources we would have less of a problem.

Modern Nuclear is the way to resolve any reliance upon Russian Gas

I think it's unlikely for the increase to be as low as to make the average annual payment as little as £2500. We've sailed past that point I think.

British Gas have said 54% increase on average but our prediction has it almost doubling - predicted £3150 next year!

We had an email from Eon today about price rises, we used to pay less than £1000 a year, estimate for this year is around £3000 ☹️

An increase to well over double by April is the reality for people coming off a fix taken out a year ago.

Because the coming 54% price rise is in addition to last October's of around 30% and a smaller increase in April 2021, which all compounds up to about 250%. Plus there could be debt on the account to repay if your DD hasn't been in line with your usage.

The op is on about the October 22 cap and the increase expected over and above the April 22 cap. Before Russia invades the Ukraine, when wholesale gas figures had dropped back from around £2.00/therm, the prediction was we'd expect another 20% on the April cap.

Since the invasion the wholesale gas prices have been much higher, and have been well over £4 on occasions. The big unknown is how long this will last and what effect it will have for the October cap figures at a time when more people than ever are on variable rates.

I think Cornwall Insights have predicted £2900 - as the annual average household figure by the time October rolls around.

@fromdownwest oh yes brilliant- why didn’t they think of that? Let’s just get some Legos and duct tape and build ourselves a few nuclear power stations over the summer.

The only way to quickly reduce the reliance on Russian gas is to push the existing non-fossil projects very hard; wind energy especially. It still can’t be done fast enough to save people from some very tough times.

It is going to be a very difficult 2022/2023.

I don't see the point in average costs being reported, usage is so variable. I also think many people, who are not vulnerable for reasons of age or disability, will cut usage. They will pay more but won't just pay x% more than what they currently pay without changing anything.

No, nor do I. I wish they'd stick with the unit price to relay the changing cost of gas and electricity. It's so misleading and doesn't seem to serve anyone.

It just feels like one huge step, to keep us hungry in cold homes.
Holidays and cars for rich people, little food and water and heat for the rest of us.
Working from home will be a laugh, with electricity priced as it is.
We should all have shared our wifi, instead of being conned that people would steal our identities and passwords .
How are some of us supposed to pay these bills.

I think we are being price gouged on all fronts, it’s profiteering, and they are all on the bandwagon.

@Svara

I don't see the point in average costs being reported, usage is so variable. I also think many people, who are not vulnerable for reasons of age or disability, will cut usage. They will pay more but won't just pay x% more than what they currently pay without changing anything.

I disagree. If people know what the average is, it gives them a benchmark as to whether they're usage is reasonable. I've seen so many posts on here of the:

Our supplier set our DD at £50 pm and are now telling us we have a huge debt on our account, how can this be? When they live in an average house like a 3 bed semi, so are likely to have been underpaying.

Or 'we're already paying £300 pm for our utilities in a 3 bed semi and it's going up even more' then they go on to talk about multiple long showers each day, multiple washing loads each day that are tumble dried even when they have a garden and the weather is good, heating on 24/7 at 22C etc.

I agree that you should always do comparisons based on unit costs, but it's also good to know if what you're paying is wildly different to the national average.

Plus there should be more publicity about schemes to help people in fuel poverty, eg there's going to be a discretionary scheme for people who don't qualify for the upcoming council tax discount, also there's www.nea.org.uk

I currently pay £177 per month (3 bed semi) and got an email from EDF yesterday advising mine will go up an estimated £980 per year, with the cheery advice I increase my DD now. I’m off sick with cancer, no idea yet when I can go back to work and I’m worried sick 😩😩😩

Reasonable is widely different for different families though. If you are in a two bed terrace with one occupant or a four bed detached with five, it's no good to know what you would be paying if you were average by some academic standard or give you any indication how frugal or wasteful with energy you are. It makes no sense to broadcast an average figure without any context.

I disagree. If people know what the average is, it gives them a benchmark as to whether they're usage is reasonable.
In that case more than one average would be more helpful, such as for a family of two in a two bed, family of four in a three bed. I don't think one average tells you much unless you are a very average family. The threads on here have shown how variable usage is.

We currently pay around 3.5k and were offered a new fix at 9k!!

But you'll have an idea how close you are to 'average'.

If you're single in a modern flat and are never home, you'll expect to use far less than average.

If you're a family of 4 in a 3 bed semi and have a typical family lifestyle, you should be around average.

If you're a family of 6 in a badly insulated period 5 bed detached and the tumble dryer, shower and oven are on constantly, you'll know that you should expect to use far more than average.

No, I disagree. They should stop patronising consumers and tell them the unit charges and give people a fighting chance of knowing what's ahead of them. Reading that the average family was paying £xxx and will now be paying £xxxx is bollocks, they rarely even tell you are assumptions around usage when they get to that figure. Plus, it leaves gas heavy houses wondering why they are paying far more than the average increase and electricity heavy households less. It's crap.

Two of us in a three bed semi (new build with a third box bedroom so I think we should fall more in line with a two bed). Usage is half of the average, so I don't find it at all helpful.

Yeah mines gone up to over 3000. That’s about £500 a month I’ll give on energy and council tax. Shit heads