Does An Energy Tariff or Capping For Disabled Customers Exist?! Please Help!

I-Owe-You

I wonder if anyone can kindly help - i have searched the forum, but only found info from 2008 which I fear maybe outdated.

I am profoundly deaf & have other medical/mobility problems. I am due to re-housed within the next 4 weeks because of my health, & am wishing to starting a fresh with my utilities in hope to get the best value of money. I am trying to do some research prior to the move.

...to cut a long story short I require having various items of electrical equipment switched on constantly. ie my paging alerting system, domestic loop, flashing doorbell to name just a few....(theres plenty more!) I feel due to this my energy bill is a lot higher than perhaps the average persons would be in normal circumstances.

I was told by (a perhaps a misinformed?) friend of a friend that some energy companies provide a capping/special tariff service available for disabled/vulnerable customers - but I cannot find anything on the energy websites. I wondered if anyone was aware of this, or had any experience or information they could share?

I have posted this on both the disability and energy boards in hope somebody maybe able to help me. I would really appreciate it as contacting these companies via email and waiting days to just receive a generic response is really disheartening! I have queried this with my case worker at social services, but was just met with shrugged shoulders and an "I don't know" response.

I would be so grateful for any advice!

With best wishes.

Prinzessilein

All energy companies offer a 'social tariff'. Some of these are rerasonably good, others are not! Like all energy tariffs, it helps if you soend a little time on-line making sure you are getting the best deal.

I live in social housing and have a pre-payment meter. My energy company (NPower) have a scheme for the disabled/low income. It works well for me, but may not be the best deal for others.

Invalidation

Im with Scottish power and after I contacted them my bill was cut by £5 a month. It all helps.

rogerblack

I-Owe-You wrote: »

I require having various items of electrical equipment switched on constantly. ie my paging alerting system, domestic loop, flashing doorbell to name just a few....(theres plenty more!) I feel due to this my energy bill is a lot higher than perhaps the average persons would be in normal circumstances.

Firstly - feelings are really bad ways to measure energy! Unless you feel something, and it's warm!

Your first port of call should be something like http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Energenie-Energy-Saving-Power-Meter-/320503970289?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_PowerAdaptors_SM&hash=item4a9f8679f1 (first one in the list from searching 'energy meter' - no clue as to the seller)

This will let you measure power consumption of all your appliances.

You can also look at the labels, though this will usually over-estimate usage.
For example - if your loop system has a plug-in adaptor that says '12V 1A' - then that's 12W (maximum). If it says '0.1A 240V' - then that means it's using 24W (maximum). (simply multiply Volts and Amps together to get watts)

Watts are a unit of power - broadly speaking a watt load on constantly will cost you about one pound or so over the year - 100W 100 pounds, and so-on.

In some ways your disability is quite irrelevant to your energy bills.
Get the above monitor - or something similar - and measure everything in your new place.

If somethings constantly using 20W, then if you replace it with something using 10W, then the savings are over 10 quid a year.

Buying appliances with an eye to energy rating is a good plan too.
For example - a desktop computer may use 200W idle, if not specced with an eye to energy usage, but a laptop + monitor can be under 10 idle, and 70 active.

Whole house energy monitors are available from some suppliers.
For example - Eon https://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Products/EnergyFit/StarterPack/?WT.svl=4 offer an energy meter on certain tarrifs. This is _really_ useful.

Reconsidering the way you do things is also good.
I used to cook rice in the microwave - just throw in rice, and water, and then microwave for 20 minutes.
I realised that if I cover the bowl, measure the right amount of water (as simple as using the same cup), set it for 8 minutes on full power, and 10 minutes on low, then it uses around half the energy.
This is about 6p - but it all adds up - 10 quid here, and there, and ...

saving_pennies

It is probably worth contacting your energy suppliers. Most do have a special tariff for vulnerable customers. When I contacted my energy supplier I was not able to have this special tariff as it was dependent on how much my energy bill was compared to my overall income. But they were able to put me into a group for vulnerable customers which although doesn't give me a discount in my energy bills, it does make me a priority in cases where there is a problem with electricity and gas in the area, e.g. they know I have electric equipment that need to be constantly plugged in due to my disability and so if there is a power cut I will be priority in getting electricity restored and failing that they can provide a generator.

Richie-from-the-Boro

I-Owe-You wrote: »

I wonder if anyone can kindly help - i have searched the forum, but only found info from 2008 which I fear maybe outdated.

I am profoundly deaf & have other medical/mobility problems. I am due to re-housed within the next 4 weeks because of my health, & am wishing to starting a fresh with my utilities in hope to get the best value of money. I am trying to do some research prior to the move.

...to cut a long story short I require having various items of electrical equipment switched on constantly. ie my paging alerting system, domestic loop, flashing doorbell to name just a few....(theres plenty more!) I feel due to this my energy bill is a lot higher than perhaps the average persons would be in normal circumstances.

I was told by (a perhaps a misinformed?) friend of a friend that some energy companies provide a capping/special tariff service available for disabled/vulnerable customers - but I cannot find anything on the energy websites. I wondered if anyone was aware of this, or had any experience or information they could share?

I have posted this on both the disability and energy boards in hope somebody maybe able to help me. I would really appreciate it as contacting these companies via email and waiting days to just receive a generic response is really disheartening! I have queried this with my case worker at social services, but was just met with shrugged shoulders and an "I don't know" response.

I would be so grateful for any advice!

With best wishes.

They, all [ the government pushed them into a volunatry agreement ] have as others have said social tariff's, who is your supplier ? specific benefits DLA etc [ without having to prove it ] will give you an automatic right to the tariff which generally is 5% less than the lowest tariff they provide.

saving_pennies

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

specific benefits DLA etc [ without having to prove it ] will give you an automatic right to the tariff which generally is 5% less than the lowest tariff they provide.

This didn't with my supplier - southern electric. I have DLA (high rate care and mobility) but because my energy bills were less than 10% of my overall income I didn't qualify for a reduced bill. When the looked at my overall income they took into account housing benefit, council tax benefit etc, even though this was money that didn't get into my bank account.

pinkmouse

saving_pennies wrote: »

This didn't with my supplier - southern electric. I have DLA (high rate care and mobility) but because my energy bills were less than 10% of my overall income I didn't qualify for a reduced bill. When the looked at my overall income they took into account housing benefit, council tax benefit etc, even though this was money that didn't get into my bank account.

I was going to ask you if your supplier was the SSE energy group cus that's who I am with and I had the same thing happen to me - I was also not eligible for the social tarrif because I wasn't spending enough on heating. It used to be 10% of your total income had to be spent on heat but I read somewhere (don't ask me where - cus I really can't remember!!) that it has gone up to 20%.

Invalidation

I was on Southern Electric then did an online swap to Scottish Power. I got £40 kickback and my electric was cheaper.
They are nicer to deal with and, as I said previously cut my monthly payments by £5 when I told them I was disabled, and they didnt even bother checking.