The way things are going it be be necessary to get a huge win on Bonanza to be able to afford a tin of soup and the electricity to heat it up.
An article on the ITV news last night indicated that by spring next year 39 million people in the UK may actually be in fuel poverty.
Frightening prospect for so many families!
My friends energy supplier put him up to £320 a month elec and gas a few months ago for a family home. Madness.
I was involved in a project a good few years ago prior to smart meters becoming popular for small businesses.
The lack of awareness, copious waste and utter inefficient way many of them handled utilities was really shocking to me. The outcome of my reporting to them was that they paid over 40% more than they ought to for utilities the bulk of which was simply down to laziness and poor housekeeping.
I would have little doubt that many residential consumers are equally poorly managed. Those on the poverty line would by necessity cut out waste but it seems that a while load more people will br forced to adopt a much more disciplined approach to heating and lighting their homes.
The other thing that amazed me is the proportion of the population, or at least those using CAB, that cannot understand the bills at all and refer only to the monthly payments without ever understanding the underlying charges. I helped one young single mother get a refund of over £2,000 because her electric supplier could not bill her accurately and did so for nearly three years.
It's beyond a joke. Made even worse by ofgem changing the price cap every three months now instead of every 6 months. Last year we were paying £60pm. I've just entered a contract paying £250pm because come October it would have been £300pm under the new price cap if on variable tariff. I like to think I'm reasonable clued up and have done as much as I can to try and reduce our usage but it's still absolutely disgusting the price we have to pay for 2 adults and 1 child. I must admit for most people they will have no idea how gas and electric is even worked out, I only just learned start of this year when prices were going to go through the roof. One thing I hate about it all though is the standing charge. It's so goddamn high just to have the privilege of being able to use gas or electric.
We are lucky ATM, I work full time, my gf is a nurse who works full time and we only have 1 child but can't imagine the stress for bigger families/poorer families or single parent families. Going to be a really tough few years before prices start coming down I think. Some people are for sure going to die because of it, elderly people i think. Plus some children are for sure going to severely suffer. All the while our government officials are nice and warm without a worry in the world.
My provider (Shell - ended up with them after Green collapsed) have clearly not gotten the memo on the rate cap, as I got an email from them this afternoon saying they are lowering my monthly direct debit from £92 to a mere £42 🤷
That aside, the daftest part of all this is the loss of any competition in the market. Moving provider every year or so to chase the cheapest deal may have been a ballache, but made you feel like there was something in a fully privatised service where companies would aim to be as efficient as possible to provide the lowest price whilst still racking up enough profit to survive, grow and keep shareholders happy.
If the current setup lasts for a prolonged period it seems a pretty compelling case that you may as well seek to renationalise and, at the very least, should be removing the profit element from the provision and in turn generate (you'd imagine) a far greater reduction in bills for the population than Rishi's token £400 bung.
I mean, something has gone wrong in my brain because the older I get the more left wing I'm getting, so I'd have us nationalise any market where consumers HAVE to purchase a certain product. Although I appreciate that with electric and gas we at least have (had) some choice, not like water providers where you face a local monopoly of (poor) service.
So long as I hold on to my job I'm appreciative I'm one of the lucky ones that can at least fund the expected jump up (unless the slots rip too bad over the next year 😂) but will certainly be changing habits, not least to aim to return to the office full time to shift the daytime heating / device charging back on to my company's bill. Need to work out how easily I can transport all chargeable devices there... and have them maxed out whilst I save more cost by showering down there and pre-cooking meals in the staff microwaves!