warm home discount scheme

To try and avoid confusion ANGUK post number 10 and I are correct. The £120 rebate is the Warm Home Discount Scheme that started this year and runs for the next 4 years. It replaces all Social Tariffs such as Essentials on British Gas.

You will be moved from the social tariff onto a standard tariff unless you ask for any of the others available from your supplier. In the case of British Gas, they have now 'simplified' their tariffs. There used to be over 40 different ones, there are now 3. The standard, the online and the fixed price. All of these are considerably more expensive than the Essentials tariff that they have now ended.

Yes you may qualify for the automatic annual rebate as a result of the switch but in most cases you will end up worse off, particularly if your household is all electric like mine.

I appreciate that this thread may be to remind people to apply for the Warm Home scheme but I think it is equally important to make sure that people understand what that will mean to them financially. The annual rebate is a carrot, people see the £120 and think great, thanks very much but when you are paying more per unit accross the year as a result of accepting the carrot, you need to understand that it will not cover the extra you will pay for your energy as a result.

British Gas told me they have moved a certain number of people over from Essentials as a trial by random selection and the rest are going to be moved during the next year.

You will get informed when they are going to change you over and will then have the option of any of the tariffs they (or anyone else) operates and can apply with evidence of income to get onto the Warm Home Scheme.

The person I spoke to said nearly all customers "on the trial switch over" are finding it more expensive, even with the £120 rebate and most of them are complaining.

His advice - don't move before you are made to switch

This is going to lead to a very sad state of affairs for very many people I am afraid, myself included. I didn't fall into the automatic category for 2011/12 but would have qualified had I chosen to apply under my disability grounds. However having done the maths I knew exactly what this was going to cost me.

I have done the calculations tonight using British Gas Online Energy Tariff which is now their cheapest. The results are calculated using my previous 12 months usage and current prices;

Essentials Tariff = £890.93 or £74.22 per month
Online Energy = £1,306.07 less rebate of £120 = £1,186.07 or £98.84 per month:eek::mad::(:eek:
This is an increase of £295.91 per year or
£24.62 a month
an increase of over 33%

When I joined the Essentials programme, I qualified bacause I was disabled and in fuel poverty. I am still disabled, still in fuel poverty and now expected to cover a 33% increase but don't forget I will get the £120 rebate............... should we have a party???

In 2010 my usage was over 2000kw/h more than it is now, it cost me £596.11 for the year.
In 2011 I implemented savings and cut those 2000 units from my usage and it cost me £890.93 an increase of £294.82. The cynic in me says there is no way BG could could get away with that sort of increase again, so they get together re hash their social tariffs into this new scheme, dangle a carrot of £120 a year rebate and bang up goes my costs by £294.82 again. A real term increase of 100% in 2 years:eek:

This is the reality of the Warm Home Discount Scheme not just for me but everybody, not just with British Gas but ALL of the suppliers. I do not know how they can be allowed to get away with it. I feel a letter to my MP going off, for all the good it will do.

John what area do you live in to get low rates like that? I am in North Yorkshire. I suffered rises on the unit rates like this over the last 2 years which is how my annual cost has doubled over that time. It really is not right what the energy companies are getting away with here but I suspect there will be nothing gets done about it, as usual.

It is a bit like motor insurance I think, if you drive you have to have insurance, which gives the providers license to charge whatever they want basically and there is nothing we can do about it. The really sad thing with these energy rises though, is come next winter I can see a lot of older people and vulnerable ones dying due to not being able to afford to heat their homes. You can really understand sometimes why people are having to make a choice between eating or heating!

I have received a letter from Br. Gas saying essentials is ending on 31st March, and have just had a gas bill in and compared it to the same period last year.
2011 units used 265 cost £57.31
2012 units used 234 cost £123.60!!!!!
How in the hell can they justify increases like that, when they make a profit. I will absolutely dread further bills from them and will have to drastically cut down on heating from now on, and I don't consider myself a heavy user.