Scottish Power Quoting Insane Increase - Ripping people off during crisis

TRON

QrizB said:

TRON said:

Has gotten to the point even if you work 72hrs a week is not enough to live on in the UK anymore.

National Minimum Wage for the over-23s is £9.50ph. 72 houes a week would be £684 a week, £35500 a year gross.

There are plenty of people on this forum living on much less than that.

Now take off 20% income tax, NI, 20% vat tax on everything you buy, road tax, mandatory car insurance, council tax, a few other taxes, then add increased food costs, fuel cost spikes, energy bills trippling and rents going up in some cases by £100-200 more a month, now add this happening ALL AT THE SAME TIME right after a pandemic when wages have not even budged and not everyone was able to work from home depending on their job role, some lost jobs completely, hours cut and/or had no choice but to keep working full time on site during a pandemic.

I stand by what I said. Living costs compared to income in this country was already way out of wack before all this, while all this is happening at the same time is just not liveable for most families even with going into heavy debt. 

I dread to think what big families on low income in older D/E rated properties are getting for energy bills right now. Must be £5k-£10k bracket even before the rises. Even some of the modern flat conversions being sprung up all over the place, converting old offices into flats have some of the worst energy ratings out there. 

Said it in a previous post but iv seen how the other half live, as in day to day around them, wasteful doesn't even cover it and stockholders/investors/shareholders won't even feel the difference and the energy companies will pass every single cost to the consumers over anything else to protect their profits. 

This is basically the same as bailing out the banks back in the market crashes and forcing the public to pay for others mistakes. 

The offers they are giving at 200-500% over what it should be to cover their behinds/profits and are so far ahead of price caps for a reason hoping people just click it without even looking into it. The unit/standing charges are not even shown on most sites even when closing orders, you have to go hunting for them. Not even throwing panic/fear mongering into the mix. 

wild666

Take your last 12 months electric and gas readings and work out the new figures using what you expect the October SVR to be, i.e. 45p E and 14p G  then add the present SC's approx. £300 to the total.
Using your usage from the last 12 months your new DD would be £178.64. If the figure they quoted included the SC's then it's £156. 93, but the kWh figures could be lower than the ones I said above.

Try turning everything that's in standby mode off at the wall socket except the fridge, freezer and router that could save you up to 30% on the electric bill. With gas just lower the boiler temperatures to 50 degrees for water and 55 degrees for heating and lower the thermostat to 18 degrees, lower if you can tolerate a lower temperature, that could save you another few hundred pounds per year.

QrizB

TRON said:

QrizB said:

TRON said:

Has gotten to the point even if you work 72hrs a week is not enough to live on in the UK anymore.

National Minimum Wage for the over-23s is £9.50ph. 72 houes a week would be £684 a week, £35500 a year gross.

There are plenty of people on this forum living on much less than that.

Now take off ...

Yes, I think I'll take off now.

Good luck.

[Deleted User]

TRON said:

the energy companies will pass every single cost to the consumers over anything else to protect their profits. 

I cannot be bothered to plough through pages of posts; however, your comment above deserves a reply.

Any fixed tariffs that a supplier offers are just that an OFFER. The consumer is under obligation to take out a fixed term contract.

As far as the Ofgem Cap is concerned, Ofgem has built in a profit margin of a maximum of 1.9% which for a consumer on an annual bill of £3000/year equates to £57 per year. Let us put it another way, the supplier charges you £250 a month and £5 of that is profit. As is your right, you may feel that the 1.9% profit bar has been set too high.

MattMattMattUK

TRON said:

QrizB said:

TRON said:

Has gotten to the point even if you work 72hrs a week is not enough to live on in the UK anymore.

National Minimum Wage for the over-23s is £9.50ph. 72 houes a week would be £684 a week, £35500 a year gross.

There are plenty of people on this forum living on much less than that.

Now take off 20% income tax, NI, 20% vat tax on everything you buy, road tax, mandatory car insurance, council tax, a few other taxes, then add increased food costs, fuel cost spikes, energy bills trippling and rents going up in some cases by £100-200 more a month, now add this happening ALL AT THE SAME TIME right after a pandemic when wages have not even budged and not everyone was able to work from home depending on their job role, some lost jobs completely, hours cut and/or had no choice but to keep working full time on site during a pandemic.

We all have to pay tax, we all have to pay VAT where applicable, we all have to pay for car insurance etc. and rightly so. The UK has some of the lowest rates of income taxation in the EU, the lowest VAT etc. The UK is a low tax economy.

TRON said:

I stand by what I said. Living costs compared to income in this country was already way out of wack before all this, while all this is happening at the same time is just not liveable for most families even with going into heavy debt. 

Not really, we have some of the cheapest food in Europe, far cheaper when compared to the USA unless you compare it to the ultra-processed food in the USA that is not even legal for sale in most of the world. Housing in some parts of the country is expensive, but incomes are also generally higher in those areas, There are generally three very distinct groups who struggle with the cost of living, a) those who will never be able to manage, often the disabled, or those caring for disabled children or family members, for whom costs are above even the base line of costs to life. b) those who could just balance the budget but have nothing spare for anything unexpected, so if a fridge breaks, or a child needs a new piece of uniform quicker than planned, a car tyre needs replacing etc. generally fall into debt when there is such an occurrence c) Those who could manage within their budget and cope with reasonable blips in the road, but choose not to.

TRON said:

I dread to think what big families on low income in older D/E rated properties are getting for energy bills right now. Must be £5k-£10k bracket even before the rises. Even some of the modern flat conversions being sprung up all over the place, converting old offices into flats have some of the worst energy ratings out there. 

Maybe people should not have big families full stop, let alone if they are on low incomes. The reason most converted offices have low energy ratings is because the ratings system counts electricity as less efficient than gas for water and space heating due to transmission losses, An equally rated water tank for electricity will have an energy rating 2 levels lower than one for gas, even though both tanks lose heat at the same rate.

TRON said:

Said it in a previous post but iv seen how the other half live, as in day to day around them, wasteful doesn't even cover it and stockholders/investors/shareholders won't even feel the difference and the energy companies will pass every single cost to the consumers over anything else to protect their profits. 

The majority of people are not struggling yet, the median household income is £31,400, the equivalised income is £36,900 and the median disposable income (income after tax and benefits) is £29,600, or £2,267 pcm. When the October price rise kicks in some additional households will struggle, the majority will still be fine, although they may have to cut back on some luxuries. 

TRON said:

This is basically the same as bailing out the banks back in the market crashes and forcing the public to pay for others mistakes. 

People that still bang on about "bailing out the banks" do not understand what actually happened. The government put in place debt guarantees for banks to protect the UK financial system from collapse, not to protect the banks. The banks did not get handouts, the guarantees never cost the taxpayer because the guarantees never kicked in as the banks did not default. The only one with an initial bailout was Lloyds bank which initially cost £20.3 billion, however that was repaid over time. 

TRON said:

The offers they are giving at 200-500% over what it should be to cover their behinds/profits and are so far ahead of price caps for a reason hoping people just click it without even looking into it. 

The "offers", on the fixed tariffs are on a commercial basis, you have a choice to take them or go on the SVR. The maximum allowable profit margin on the SVR is 2%. The average margin on a fix is estimated to be around 3.5%, the profits are not as large as you seem to assume they are.

TRON said:
The unit/standing charges are not even shown on most sites even when closing orders, you have to go hunting for them. Not even throwing panic/fear mongering into the mix. 

They are shown on all the sites, they are legally required on the tariff card, if people refuse to read them and just look at the Direct Debit estimate that is their own fault.

casjen

TRON said:

QrizB said:

TRON said:

Has gotten to the point even if you work 72hrs a week is not enough to live on in the UK anymore.

National Minimum Wage for the over-23s is £9.50ph. 72 houes a week would be £684 a week, £35500 a year gross.

There are plenty of people on this forum living on much less than that.

Now take off 20% income tax, NI, 20% vat tax on everything you buy, road tax, mandatory car insurance, council tax, a few other taxes, then add increased food costs, fuel cost spikes, energy bills trippling and rents going up in some cases by £100-200 more a month, now add this happening ALL AT THE SAME TIME right after a pandemic when wages have not even budged and not everyone was able to work from home depending on their job role, some lost jobs completely, hours cut and/or had no choice but to keep working full time on site during a pandemic.

I stand by what I said. Living costs compared to income in this country was already way out of wack before all this, while all this is happening at the same time is just not liveable for most families even with going into heavy debt. 

I dread to think what big families on low income in older D/E rated properties are getting for energy bills right now. Must be £5k-£10k bracket even before the rises. Even some of the modern flat conversions being sprung up all over the place, converting old offices into flats have some of the worst energy ratings out there. 

Said it in a previous post but iv seen how the other half live, as in day to day around them, wasteful doesn't even cover it and stockholders/investors/shareholders won't even feel the difference and the energy companies will pass every single cost to the consumers over anything else to protect their profits. 

This is basically the same as bailing out the banks back in the market crashes and forcing the public to pay for others mistakes. 

The offers they are giving at 200-500% over what it should be to cover their behinds/profits and are so far ahead of price caps for a reason hoping people just click it without even looking into it. The unit/standing charges are not even shown on most sites even when closing orders, you have to go hunting for them. Not even throwing panic/fear mongering into the mix. 

Sounds like a case of envy of how the other half live.. nothing stopping you joining them...just takes an effort.. You are not obliged to pay for anything...... you're not obliged to take fixes in any industry.... Just know that any consequences of this are yours and yours alone.