do powergen help those who cant afford to keep warm?

the_devil_made_me_do_it

equine_induced_poverty wrote:

ways to cut back on electricity usage;

use economy seven if it is available.
use timers i.e. the freezer will NOT defrost if you turn it off for twelve hours, neither will the fridge heat up! (well it doesnt in my house...)
dont use a tumble drier.
dont use the cooker if you can use the microwave.
cook in bulk and freeze it.
dont overfill the kettle.
dont wash clothes unnecessarily.

Stay warm with hot water bottles, extra duvets and blankets, dont heat unused rooms, exercise and wear lots of clothes, (I am wearing coat, hat, fingerless mits, two pairs socks and thermals, plus the ordinary stuff of course!)

My house has no heating at all except one log fire... and yes I am blue and it is freezing!!!!

good luck

this all sounds very depressing. i was reading through this post, and felt as if I was reading something from a bygone era. Surely this way of life should be extinct, obviously it isn't and it's damn scary.

tk

i actually got my official bill today, and its not too bad! after freezing our butts off, having hardly any heating on, 2 minute cold showers , and just generally being miserable and cold since october last year we only OWE powergen £4.25! after taking my monthly payments (put up by themselves) into account, thats not bad. SO this means that in future winters i will just have to grow icicles on my nose, and hope the kids live through the night or hope some top fashion designer makes blue a fashionable skin colour!!!!
there is no way we can cut down our usage anymore, and with prices rising, i hope everyone else can manage a bit better than we do!
keep warm, spring and summer are nearly here!!!

creditscorer_2

tk,

I should have made something clearer - the Fuel Direct scheme in conjunction with Citizens Advice help sets a maximum amount that you need to pay your energy supplier. The standard payments at the moment are something like £4 for elec and £3 for gas per week.

If the CAB tell the DWP (work and pensions) that all you can afford is 1p, then all any energy supplier can take every week is 1p.

This is part of energy suppliers' supply licence and is the corporate consequence of privitisation - the suppliers have to do this if they want to make money from everyone else.

Definitely go to the CAB and don't sit in the freezing cold - energy suppliers can't distinguish between people who can't pay and those who won't pay without help from external agencies (like the CAB). BG lost several million pounds (as did the others) following the case of the disconnected pensioners in 2004 - Fuel Direct is a small price for them to pay in comparison.

mikemoate

TK I would certainly take the previous posters advice however I did find this on Powergen's website and it may be of some interest to you and perhaps others. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say so if you are in difficulty give them a call.

Powergen will invest £33m a year over the next three years in CaringEnergy to help customers reduce the impact of rising costs in a number of ways including: free cavity wall and loft insulation, free Benefits Entitlement Checks to ensure householders are claiming all the benefits they are entitled to (the average unclaimed benefit identified is £1,600 per customer a year), and free energy efficiency advice, home visits and energy audits. A hardship fund has also been set up to give further sustainable support to customers who are struggling to pay their bills. Customers who want to find out more should call CaringEnergy direct on 0800 051 1480;

tk

thanks for posting about powergens hardship fund. i have left a message for them to call me. at the same time of posting this thread i also emailed powergen, and was given an 0800 number to call. they took my details and assured me a powergen "expert" would call me back within 48 hours. i take it thats 48 days, as this was well over a week ago......
looking at the information, they dont seem to offer any help with heating costs like british gas do to those who cant afford it. not sure what they can do to help ius really, will await their call!