Standing Charges

wrf12345

Poorer users get saddled with prepayment meters and higher s/c's, whereas they should have a higher unit rate and no s/cs to encourage low usage. I wonder if electricity is a human rights issue and the impediment to use of having standing charges on a prepayment meter is something that could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights (taking both Ofgem and energy providers) as there is no redress in the UK. Certainly, those at Ofgem who colluded with the industry to up the standing charges to recovery money from users switching companies need to be sacked without compensation and lose their pensions - most of the money was lost on gas so why did they up the standing charge on electric, other than the cynical idea that people can't get their electric supply capped whereas they can with the gas.

GingerTim

wrf12345 said:

I wonder if electricity is a human rights issue and the impediment to use of having standing charges on a prepayment meter is something that could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights (taking both Ofgem and energy providers) as there is no redress in the UK. 

It isn't, and it's not.

Ultrasonic

wrf12345 said:

Poorer users get saddled with prepayment meters and higher s/c's, 

Bear in mind that the difference is only about 5p per day, or £18 per year. Yes every bit counts for those struggling most but this is far from being the biggest part of their issue re. energy bills.

pochase

And don't forget that the unit rates per KWh are cheaper on prepaid.

Gerry1

Ultrasonic said:

wrf12345 said:

Poorer users get saddled with prepayment meters and higher s/c's, 

Bear in mind that the difference is only about 5p per day, or £18 per year.

Not if you also have gas, that's another £36.72 more per year, so the dual fuel PAYG increase is around £55.

pochase said:

And don't forget that the unit rates per KWh are cheaper on prepaid.

Not always.  EDF is all over the place, gas is cheaper or dearer depending on the region.  EDF's E7 tends to have higher day rates but lower night rates on PAYG.

Ultrasonic

Gerry1 said:

Not if you also have gas, that's another £36.72 more per year, so the dual fuel PAYG increase is around £55.

Excellent point! No idea why I only looked at electricity there but you're right I did. As you refer to the difference is about 10p per day for gas to add to the 5p per day for electricity.