Student

emmaallcock1

Hello is there any additional help for students with energy costs? My daughter is going into a shared house and I am worried about the cost in addition to our own 
Any advice gratefully appreciated 

pochase

If the shared house is on a domestic electricity account they will get the £400, otherwise only if she is disabled.

I don't think any of the other payments would apply for her.

Robin9

Is your daughter / other sharers paying the electricity bill direct ? or is their landlord paying it ?   If so it may be that he/she is on a business tariff and not get the £400

Take great care if the utility costs are included in the rent.

Farway

Robin9 said:

Is your daughter / other sharers paying the electricity bill direct ? or is their landlord paying it ?   If so it may be that he/she is on a business tariff and not get the £400

Take great care if the utility costs are included in the rent.

And also take great care how the bill is divided & whose name it is in, there are many woeful tales on here about students being left to pick up the tab when their flatmates have gone, deny all knowledge etc

zathrasB5

I agree with the sentiment of emmaallcock1 .  My son has got into Glasgow (so not in the sunny, warmer south) and Glasgow has such a shortage of student accommodation at the moment that students are being warned to not enrol until they have somewhere to live.  We finally got a 1 bedroom flat for him with single glazing, electric only.  ScottishPower quoted him a rate which was the same as his rent!  There is no way this is affordable but no one seems to be raising the issue of the energy crisis for students who are living outside of uni provided accommodation.

[Deleted User]

Why is raising the issue for students any different from raising the issue for singles, or families, or people in flats, or pensioners, or people in rural areas....

CheekyMikey

[Deleted User] said:

Why is raising the issue for students any different from raising the issue for singles, or families, or people in flats, or pensioners, or people in rural areas....

Because students have next to no income to live on because the maintenance grants barely cover accommodation costs as it is…

pochase

[Deleted User] said:

Why is raising the issue for students any different from raising the issue for singles, or families, or people in flats, or pensioners, or people in rural areas....

At least you got a new group for your collection, you were missing students.


Welcome to the forum @zathrasB5

Your son will get the £400 everybody with a domestic electricity account will get. And only if he has an account and does not pay his landlord instead.

That is all the help he can expect, same as everybody else who is not on means tested benefits, a pensioner over 68 or disabled. @Sparkygrad might seem a bit harsh, but he is right that almost every population group possible comes into the forum and requests additional help specifically for their group.

Almost everybody is affected heavily by the energy crisis, and there is only so much help available.

What rates are quoted for your son? I would expect them to still quote the old April SVT and not the new more expensive one from October.

What has he been quoted?

[Deleted User]

Yeah, sorry if I sound harsh, but you can't go more than a couple of hours at the moment without a new thread from someone explaining how they have a special circumstance that means they need extra help more urgently than all the other people who are equally badly affected (just in a slightly different way).

MWT

zathrasB5 said:

ScottishPower quoted him a rate which was the same as his rent!

Either his rent is very low, or they quoted a fixed tariff, not the SVT.

.... please post the name of the tariff and the standing charge/kWh rates he was quoted?

zathrasB5

So unfortunately I do not have the exact details of the rates.  This came via the letting agents asking if we wanted to be on the current rate offered by Scottish Power which we think was called their flexible cap or something.  However it looks like the crux of the issue was they were saying this was based on a 9000kwh usage.  The flat is electric only (we are trying to confirm that it has an economy 7 meter) and has an immersion heater for hot water and an electric shower and basically standard electric heaters |(not storage or anything).  Also the flat has little insulation and single glazing.  But despite all this 9000kwh seems very high.  This is a 2 room + kitchen and bathroom flat after all.  We use a lot of electricity in my own 3 bedroom 2 story house and though we have a small solar panel system to offset things a little (highest I have seen it was 750w) we use a tumble dryer almost every day.  And we only clocked up 3800kwh last year. (Gas central heating and water though).  So we are wondering if Scottish Power is taking the mickey a bit here.  Either that or we are walking into one of the coldest and worst set up flats in the country for electric usage.