Energy affordability crisis

[exiledclaseboy]

I’m increasingly confused by this.

The energy price cap has been raised once, increasing heating bills exponentially. It’ll be raised again in the autumn taking average energy bills to more than £4k per year. That will cripple millions of people, many if not most of whom simply won’t be able to pay.

The main energy companies are shamelessly raking in massive profits.

The government has already thrown millions, quite rightly, at people to help them pay these increased bills. It’s nowhere near enough and they’ll have to do more. And they will, despite the tough guy rhetoric of the two dribbling halfwits currently vying for the dubious honour of being Britain's fourth in a row worst prime minister ever. If they don’t Britain faces abject destitution on a grand scale.

So my question is a simple one. Why the hell not just scrap the upcoming increase to the price cap, reverse the previous one and stop millions of people being forced into choosing whether to heat their homes or feed themselves and their families?

 

[Neath_Jack]

I had my renewal through yesterday, so took it into work today to see if my colleagues who specialise in the money side of the business, could explain some of it to me.

My new repayments on a variable rate will be about £45 a month more than what i currently pay. They are also giving me the option of fixing my rate for 12 months, but those repayments are more that double what i am paying now. The consensus was that I should take the latter deal, as with the next two increases planned i am likely to be paying even more than that on the variable rate.

 

[dickythorpe]

It's about time the energy companies did something to help.
Obscene profits not being invested in helping the consumer.

 

[Niigata Jack]

I’m increasingly confused by this.

The energy price cap has been raised once, increasing heating bills exponentially. It’ll be raised again in the autumn taking average energy bills to more than £4k per year. That will cripple millions of people, many if not most of whom simply won’t be able to pay.

The main energy companies are shamelessly raking in massive profits.

The government has already thrown millions, quite rightly, at people to help them pay these increased bills. It’s nowhere near enough and they’ll have to do more. And they will, despite the tough guy rhetoric of the two dribbling halfwits currently vying for the dubious honour of being Britain's fourth in a row worst prime minister ever. If they don’t Britain faces abject destitution on a grand scale.

So my question is a simple one. Why the hell not just scrap the upcoming increase to the price cap, reverse the previous one and stop millions of people being forced into choosing whether to heat their homes or feed themselves and their families?

Basically Ofgem are a waste of fuking space, energy companies are making record profits yet the costs to their customers are increasing, they reckon that those profits are making up for the "losses" they've made in these last yrs just how the fuk that works when a vast majority of people were housebound with the various lockdowns and with people working from home because of the pandemic.

We're being fed bullshit and being taken for mugs.

 

[K23]

I read an interesting theory a few months ago after the government had finally implemented Labour's suggested windfall tax.

The government takes a windfall tax on the excessive profits from the energy companies and gets credit for doing so
The government gives this to the population to help with their energy bills and gets credit for doing so
The population pay the money from the government to the energy companies
The energy companies pay the money to their shareholders as dividends.

So, the people unwittingly become a conduit for moving large amounts of public money (raised via a windfall tax) into private hands. The perfect Tory plan.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

I read an interesting theory a few months ago after the government had finally implemented Labour's suggested windfall tax.

The government takes a windfall tax on the excessive profits from the energy companies and gets credit for doing so
The government gives this to the population to help with their energy bills and gets credit for doing so
The population pay the money from the government to the energy companies
The energy companies pay the money to their shareholders as dividends.

So, the people unwittingly become a conduit for moving large amounts of public money (raised via a windfall tax) into private hands. The perfect Tory plan.

That’s not so much a theory, more a statement of fact really.

 

[Cooperman]

I run the finances in our house but the one area I neglect a little is that of the utility bills. Last time we moved I set us up with British Gas duel fuel purely because I wanted it all in one place so to speak. When the warnings about price increases started I paid little attention to e-mails from BG who were basically encouraging me to sign up to fixed rate deals. I ignored them and let us continue to ride on their standard variable rate, however now many months on I can see that their SVR is not that much higher than it was twelve months ago. The SVR is also a third of the cost of the new deals on offer, so I continue to ride it out and am one stop short of calling British Gas in order to ask them if my bills are legit. Gas direct debit hasn’t changed for as long as I can remember and we’re in credit, I put the leccy up a tenner as the standing charge went up a few pence per day, but again in credit.

 

[sainthelens]

On mass, people should just not pay it.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

On mass, people should just not pay it.

I thought about that but it’ll just make people’s financial position worse. They’ll end up with county court judgements, bailiffs seizing goods to the value of and everything that comes with civil enforcement. And it’ll mean no access to credit which is already how many are making meds meet. Essentially, they’ve got us by the balls and they know it.

 

[BLAZE]

Back in October '21 I tied into a 3-year fixed rate at roughly the same rates I've been paying for the previous few years. Either I'm misunderstanding it all or I've managed to dodge a bullet assuming the energy prices have subsided again by the time my fixed term ends in October '24

I almost feel guilty receiving the energy discounts between October and March when I'm not affected by the price rises. Good luck to the rest of you

 

[monmouth]

The excess profit laden energy companies aren't the ones supplying the energy subject to the price cap.

Proper tax in general is the answer, targetting the ridiculously wealthy 1% and Company payouts to directors and shareholders. So we aint getting that under this lot of actual criminals. Instead we will have more public money shovelled into the pockets of the 1%. It's shameful.

Riots on the way and strikes so they can blame Labour, immigrants and Unions and act 'tough' with more draconian powers. The country is being raped and asset stripped. They don't care how poor it gets. They'll be safe in their Charter Cities and Freeports with their own laws and private armies. I'm not normally a tinfoil hatter, but this one has legs. If the moron Truss doesn't start a nuclear war with her idiocy.

 

[Pegojack]

The excess profit laden energy companies aren't the ones supplying the energy subject to the price cap.

Proper tax in general is the answer, targetting the ridiculously wealthy 1% and Company payouts to directors and shareholders. So we aint getting that under this lot of actual criminals. Instead we will have more public money shovelled into the pockets of the 1%. It's shameful.

Riots on the way and strikes so they can blame Labour, immigrants and Unions and act 'tough' with more draconian powers. The country is being raped and asset stripped. They don't care how poor it gets. They'll be safe in their Charter Cities and Freeports with their own laws and private armies. I'm not normally a tinfoil hatter, but this one has legs. If the moron Truss doesn't start a nuclear war with her idiocy.

I said a couple of years ago after I'd fecked off to Spain that things would have to get a lot worse before they start to get better, before enough of the morons who voted for Brexit and voted for Boris to sweep to power finally wake up to how stupid they've been. It's still not bad enough but it's getting there. Massive cost of living crisis, collapse of the NHS, strikes across the public and service sectors, EU trade war looming which will strangle food imports never mind anything else.

If by some miracle Labour get into power in the next two years, massive political reform has to be the number one priority, so that a minority of voters will never be allowed again to put into power a government of staggering corruption and incompetence. Remove the FPTP system, abolish the House of Lords, introduce a written constitution, and reform and strengthen all the outdated institutions in parliament like the Speaker, the priviledges and standards commitees, PM questions.

 

[monmouth]

They won't even see through the pathetically inadequate windfall tax that they were shamed into. The latest wheeze is making health authorities fund their own pay rises from the current pot, and of course reversing the NI increase meant to fund the NHS and Social Care (not that it would have been used for that).

Just got to pray for a benign progressive coalition to force through those changes you outline. Another term for these utter ***** and the F word seriously comes into play. They have already poisoned all our institutions, Trump style, and the next two years, never mind more, will finish the job.

I can see them conning their way back in, playing all the racist, xenophobic and disgusting cards they have, aided by 'newspapers' that should be the first thing to be brought under to heel by Leveson 2.

It's bleak.

 

[Cooperman]

Back in October '21 I tied into a 3-year fixed rate at roughly the same rates I've been paying for the previous few years. Either I'm misunderstanding it all or I've managed to dodge a bullet assuming the energy prices have subsided again by the time my fixed term ends in October '24

I almost feel guilty receiving the energy discounts between October and March when I'm not affected by the price rises. Good luck to the rest of you

See my comment above re my British Gas standard rates, they don't appear to have changed much (or I am also reading it incorrectly).

What provider did you sign up with?

 

[Itchysphincter]

I’m increasingly confused by this.

The energy price cap has been raised once, increasing heating bills exponentially. It’ll be raised again in the autumn taking average energy bills to more than £4k per year. That will cripple millions of people, many if not most of whom simply won’t be able to pay.

The main energy companies are shamelessly raking in massive profits.

The government has already thrown millions, quite rightly, at people to help them pay these increased bills. It’s nowhere near enough and they’ll have to do more. And they will, despite the tough guy rhetoric of the two dribbling halfwits currently vying for the dubious honour of being Britain's fourth in a row worst prime minister ever. If they don’t Britain faces abject destitution on a grand scale.

So my question is a simple one. Why the hell not just scrap the upcoming increase to the price cap, reverse the previous one and stop millions of people being forced into choosing whether to heat their homes or feed themselves and their families?