gas/electric monthly payments

buntoon2004

I have been on employment support allowance since last september, I missed a few of my monthly direct debits for gas and electric due to lack of money, I have been paying bits off both bills each week between £5 and £10 depending on what spare money I have. i sent meter readings in to my supplier and they came back with a £706 gas bill and £322 electric. the company has been on the phone today and said to save disconnection I have 2 options pre payment meters, where they will take an extra £6 per week per utility ontop of my usage, or they can take £13.30 per utility per week direct from my employment support allowance, this works out at£115.27 per callendar month which is about 15% of my monthly benefit. I know this is my own fault running up these bills and I am not trying to get out of paying them, but I am on sickness benefit due to an accident, not by choice. Is there anyone who knows if there is anything else I can do to get the payments reduced to a more manageable one thankyou

Joyful

If you get it taken from your benefits they will look at the yearly amount of energy you use and split it over 52 weeks. On top of this they will take the lowest amount they can for the debt which is £3.40.

The other option is the PP meter which they can set the debt amount at £3.40 but you will have to pay for the consumption on top of this.

As you can have problems not having enough money to put on the meter in Winter and also meters are more liable to break down in the cold I would suggest the first option is a better way.