£5 a day for gas?

Debz1966

Hello All

I would really like it if someone can point me in the right direction as I feel like I'm pulling my hair out regarding my gas supply.

When we had the bad snow at the beginning of the year I phoned British Gas and asked them for help with my prepayment tariff, I was putting nearly £8 a day in my meter just for gas at that time and being on benefits and being disabled I wondered if I could get help. I'm on ESA and DLA ( High rate ).
I was told I could get on the essentials tariff and that I could get help moving the prepayment meters inside ( they are down the side of the house which is hard to access for me now ). I was also told that I would get payment machines that I could put on my laptop and then pay for gas and electric from my home as I am house bound due to my condition.
Soooo the lady on the phone said that someone would ring me within 10 days, this didnt happen and I left it as I thought I probably wasn't entitled, but things financially hit me again in July of this year and I called them again. I explained to the young lady that I had called in January and was told someone would phone me and she said I was entitled to help and that she would chase it up and that someone would call me within 10 days and that if they didnt she was keeping an eye on it and would call me back herself....... this didnt happen. I left it again hoping someone would call and in the end I had sooo much going on ( as my benefits were stopped and I was fighting that ) that it was the last thing on my mind.
Sooo my benefits were reinstated and 10 days ago I rang British Gas once more. I was told that the Essentials package had been stopped but due to me asking to swap in July that I would still be entitled and guess what? Yep someone would ring me back in 5 days....... have they? no!
I'm putting £5 per day in my gas prepayment meter and that only just heats my home and cooks me a meal , as well as £1 a day for my electric. This is totalling up to £84 a fortnight out of my benefits and its crippling me big time. I recieved on payment machine for my electric and I'm still waiting for the gas one, and I've recieved nothing from British Gas.

What do I do now, its getting colder and I'm worried that I'm going to be paying £8 a day should we get bad weather like we did last winter?

If you can advise me I would really appreciate it.

kind regards

Debz

HappyMJ

How many kWh's do you use in a day? week? month? annually? Do you have any debt on the meter?

Debz1966

dont know i cant get to the meter properly to look, and there is no debt on either gas or electric

HappyMJ

Debz1966 wrote: »

dont know i cant get to the meter properly to look, and there is no debt on either gas or electric

The answer can be obtained by ringing your supplier or by looking at the annual statements that they send to you.

£5 per day would purchase 104kWh per day with Ebico and £8 per day would purchase 167kWh per day. That would be enough to run the boiler on quite high for 24 hours a day in very cold weather for quite a large uninsulated house (7kWh constant).

bengasman

To make the most of what little money you have, you should get the prepayment meters replaced asap for normal meters. Apart from being able to shop around and get a significant saving on your gas and electric cost, it is also safer.
For somebody in your position, a problem with topping the meters up during a period of snow/frozen road could have very serious consequences.
British Gas are likely to be difficult about it, because people on key meters are paying top prices and extremely unlikely to move to another company, so they are the ultimate cash cows.
Remember that it is your legal right to get the meters changed for normal ones, no matter what they tell you. If you don't know how to go about, you can contact me directly and I will help you get it sorted.