Comparisons for Gas & Electric Social Tarifs

Blue_Babe

Hello. I am in receipt of Income Support and DLA and am with EDF for both Gas and Electric. Because I spend a high percentage of my income on Gas and Electric I qualify for their 'Energy Assist' tarif which is cheaper than their regular tarifs. Most companies offer a reduced rate, although the qualifying criteria varies from one company to another. Some I have found are "in receipt of certain benefits" and some are "a certain percentage of your income (or above) being spent on gas and electric".

Unfortunately, searches for price comparisons don't seem to have the option to select a social tarif to compare. Where can I find out the social tarifs of other companies and also what their qualifying crieria are to see if I qualify?

Airmike23

Generally the Online only tariffs for the power companies have bigger discounts than social tariffs, social tariffs are presumed to be paper billing options just with a higher discount/lower unit rate than the comapny's standard tariff, Eon for instance offer Warm Assist which has a 15% discount off the unit rate costs, whereas a normal customer only gets 8% discount. Online tariffs are generally upto 22-25% cheaper than paper bill option, at the moment Scottish Power's Online Fixed Price Energy Dec 2012 and Online Energy Saver 16 are extremely competitive, best thing to do is get together your annual consumption and have a look online at what cost would be. You can speak with the respective power company's about what their social tariffs are, I know for instance Eon's, customer has to be over the age of 60 to qualify for warm assist, if under that age, at least with Eon you would only be able to opt for one of the normal range of tariffs.

Blue_Babe

Thanks for that, but therein lies my problem. I don't know what the standard tariff is with EDF for comparrison purposes.

Each comparison website asks for your previous year's spend and the option to select which company and tariff you are on. My Energy Assist tariff is never an option so I end up giving wrong information as I try and guess which may be nearest.

If only the comparrison websites allowed the options to input your age and income status and search through ALL the available tariff options it would be so much easier and fairer.

HappyMJ

Blue_Babe wrote: »

Thanks for that, but therein lies my problem. I don't know what the standard tariff is with EDF for comparrison purposes.

Each comparison website asks for your previous year's spend and the option to select which company and tariff you are on. My Energy Assist tariff is never an option so I end up giving wrong information as I try and guess which may be nearest.

If only the comparrison websites allowed the options to input your age and income status and search through ALL the available tariff options it would be so much easier and fairer.

Just use EDF's Standard tariff and choose pay on receipt of bill then only enter the kWh that are on your bill over the last 12 months. Do not use the monthly £££ amount that you pay. Then when the savings are displayed ignore that and use the annual cost instead. Where it displays your current cost for EDF energy it says £1,224 here for east midlands region put that figure into a calculator and then multiply it by 0.94 and then minus £39.38 per fuel (£78.76)

i.e if your annual bill displays as £1,224 then * 0.94 = £1,150.56 then minus £78.76 = £1,072

With the new figure of £1,072 you can then compare deals by using the total annual cost. There are 7 tariffs in the East Midlands cheaper than £1,072 per year for average usage.

Edit: Just as an aside anyone on a household income of £15,300 (before tax and including cash benefits such as tax credits and child benefit) or below and using average or more than average usage would qualify. That being standard billing with EDF being more than £1,224 would be eligible to apply for this tariff. Maybe a prepayment meter preventing access to better tariffs.