Energy bills: How spanked will YOU get?

[scottishtv]

I was horrified to learn that those insert coin meters are still in some houses. How will those be dealt with?

Those must surely be horrible landlords ensuring a tenant is paying upfront for electricity, rather than an energy company still utilising these? I can't imagine any supplier is going around emptying coin boxes and manually updating tariffs on meters. Maybe I'm wrong!

If it is landlord, then they will get the credit as they are ultimately the billpayer. I did read somewhere that are trying to force landlords that charge for utilities as part of the rent to pass the discount on. You'd hope that would cover these too.

[all new Phil]

One of the things I’ve really struggled to get my head around is just what further impact the price increases will have and how much the government measures will mitigate that. There seems to be a lack of really clear “if you paid £x a month last year, you’ll probably now be paying £y going forward”. I’d guess a majority pay their energy bills by direct debit and so will be pretty clear on what goes out of the bank each month. It seems though like everything gets talked about in terms of a yearly average household amount which, yes you could probably do some working out with, but it feels like such an abstract figure that it’s almost meaningless.

I don’t think that the measures put in by the government on prices have cut through for this reason. It’s been explained terribly which, given the huge sums of money involved, is absolutely terrible politics.

Or is it just me not paying enough attention? I don’t know.

[Martin Phillp]

EDF Prepayment which I'm on are sending vouchers in the post to be redeemed at Payzone/PayPoint outlets including the PO as I don't have a smart meter.

I was horrified to learn that those insert coin meters are still in some houses. How will those be dealt with?

I'm surprised they're still going. I have a Quantum gas card meter and a standard electricity key meter.

[scottishtv]

It’s been explained terribly which, given the huge sums of money involved, is absolutely terrible politics.

Or is it just me not paying enough attention? I don’t know.

No, you're right. The headlines about "capped at £2,500" are meaningless to most people as that's all based on an average household's consumption.

For everyone on their supplier's Standard Variable Rate (which most people have reverted to), your prices from 1st October will be a set unit rate per kWh and a set daily standing charge per fuel type. Even then, these vary depending on how you pay (direct debit, prepayment or if you get a bill after consumption).

Easiest thing to do is use the new calculator on MoneySavingExpert, which lets you input your own consumption (should be shown on your bill) OR what you currently pay (but that might be less accurate).

These rates are meant to be in place until end of September 2024. As for how you'll get the £400 discount for this winter, the link thegeek posted earlier is useful on that.

(Edited as I got some numbers wrong).

[BBC TV Centre]

It'sa bee in my bonnet that they have kept banging on about some mythical "average" figure with little attribution to how the figure is calculated.

No wonder even Liz Truss gets her knickers twisted and spouts more rubbish than usual claiming that it is a hard cap and you can't pay more than £2500.

It would have been a good opportunity to have a 'stop, educate and calculate' type message (I know the government love a trifecta) and get people to understand what these figures are, and what bearing they have on the usage.

Then again, on the other hand the Daily Star is still in print, so perhaps I'm a little optimistic.

[Martin Phillp]

In a letter from EDF, prepayment meter customers will be able to redeem via the Post Office with the first voucher within the first two weeks of October.

I think the PO uses the Payzone system, but it appears they're using them because they have trained staff who can do the verification process, which will stop issues with independent retailers not fully understanding how to redeem the vouchers for customers.

When my mother was on Pension Credit, she'd get vouchers for her payment keys every winter and it was hell to get a retailer to do them. The Co-op did them for her eventually but had to find a member of staff who understood how to do it.

[Alan de Robson]

£419 a month for my bill with Outfox The Market.

[WillPS]

£419 a month for my bill with Outfox The Market.

That number alone doesn't tell us much.

[Alan de Robson]

Happy to expand on that but not sure what information you're looking for.

Here's the notification I got from the company...



When I first signed up with the company in August 2020, my monthly bill was £112.42.

I'm now paying £319.89 per month. It's now £5,043.50 a year but that's better than the £7,390.33 it would cost without Government support.

If the BoE base rate goes up to 6%, my mortgage payments will jump £450ish so 2023 is going to be very expensive. Have to find an extra £10,000-ish a year to stand still.

[WillPS]

I've liked your post, I'm not sure 'YAY' really reflects my emotions reading it but I do appreciate the extra info.

Your usage seems quite high, are you in a particularly large/draughty home or do you drive a lot of miles in an EV?

[scottishtv]

These rates are meant to be in place until end of September 2024.

So, when's a guarantee not a guarantee? When it's the government's Energy Price Guarantee. These capped unit rates on your whole domestic bill now only in place until the end of March, it seems.

No detail on what happens next, but higher domestic bills for many seem likely.