My Grandmothers Gas bills are stupidly high - advise needed

[brainache]

Hello,

I have just spoken to my nan and she told me about her gas bill. Can anyone advise anything please

She told me before christmas her bill was high but i never really knew how high untill just now.

She said she's on the card / prepay meter - which i know is higher then on D/D. She said she puts on £10 every 3 days!!! and she said between 28th November and 3rd Jan she spent £120 !!!! Surley thats not right.....She lives in a house thats converted into 2 flats. It has high ceilings. She is 76 and was given x amount to help with her gas money a while back.....

Is there anything else she can do

Oh and she says she only has the heating on in the front room and bathroom when needed during the day and in the bedroom in the evening b4 bed.

I want to help her but dont know how. I can just about make ends meet myself (Im on income support) Im sure shes not eating properly and I have offered to do a online Tesco shop for her to help as i cant see her with no food but she wont let me. I dont live near her and do not have a car so cant pop in or take food to her. I really want to help her but dont know what to do.

Any advise........

Can you ring the gas board for her? And explain the situation. I know someone who is on a meter and she said that hers is using £5.00 a day.

Is she on the top floor of the converted house? If so, she might need to explore what kind of insulation there is. The council and her gas supplier should have some sort of scheme providing free or cheap insulation for older people. 120 a month does sound wrong tbh, even for high ceilings.

If the flat doesn't have double glazing, you might want to consider some form of secondary glazing. Is it a council property, rented or owned?

I would also go along with her to the Citizens Advice Bureau and ask for their help in sorting out tariffs etc... They will also be able to confirm if she is getting all the benefit payments she is entitled to to help with this.

How is the heating controlled? If she is only 'putting it on' in certain rooms and it is gas, you need to check how she's doing this - if central heating, even if she's turning off individual radiators, if the thermostat is in a cold place, it may be firing up unnecessarily.

that sounds an awful lot, even for prepayment.

I had my heating on (GCH - but only temp control is on the boiler so all radiators are either hot or cold or off) a LOT from September-December and my gas bill was £272 - £90 a month, and this a big 3 bedroom, draughty, victorian house.

Thank you guys

I am due to see her very soon - i still have her Christmas present

Shes on the bottom floor and its rented. I've spoken to her and she said she did speak to someone and they said they will change her over if she wants as long as the landlord agrees, which he does btw. She said as for all that she has paid 'theres nothing we can do about that' she said they said Then she changed the subject so i will leave asking anymore questions till i see her next. Im hoping it'll be next week.

Re Thermostat's - can they be moved? My mums is upstairs in the coldest place in the house and she turns her rad's off upstairs untill a few hrs before bedtime.

I take after my dad i dont touch my rad's, i keep them on all the time and just use the thermostat and timer - though i do have a small open plan house, no door between upstairs and downstairs.

Oh yes she does have a fireplace with a chimney - she said a friend knows a cleaner who is going to come round to have a look at it. She might be able to start using it - is it expencive to use?

There are a number of sites aimed at older/elderly people which have lots of advice re benefits, heating, eating well etc - perhaps you could have a look there too.

Is the winter fuel payment automatic or do you have to apply for it?

It might be worth checking there is no "old" debt being recouped by the meter. Has she been there long? Could even be someone elses old debt....

I agree with dilbertina- we lived in a rented flat with a prepayment meter and it was working out really expensive. I made a call to the gas company, and it turned out that the meter had been installed in the first place because of some arrears built up by a previous tennant. The meter had been pre-programmed to take £3 of every £10 that we put on, to pay off the debt. It was all sorted with one phone call, and we really noticed a difference after that.