Energy Bills Crisis - Fixed vs Variable Tariffs? - Other Supplier Support?

ThriftyThree

SparkyGrad - I just mention you specifically just as it says you worked in the industry - do you happen to have an email contact address for British Gas please, something that might actually get me to a human like a supervisor or CEO contact? I would like to ask them what they are doing for ppl in our situation and similar ones and request a social tariff. Not saying anything would happen as a result, but I think we collectively need to apply far more pressure to these companies to do more for us.

They have social tariffs for other services like phone and broadband now, should be for energy too IMHO.

bristolleedsfan

ThriftyThree said:

or other more targeted assistance? 

All the large suppliers have had targeted assistance in place for some time

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/bills/british-gas-to-donate-10-of-profits-to-help-customers-with-energy-bills-with-grants-of-up-to-750-per-home-1814587?ico=most_popular

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/british-gas-energy-trust.html

ThriftyThree

bristolleedsfan said:

ThriftyThree said:

or other more targeted assistance? 

All the large suppliers have had targeted assistance in place for some time

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/bills/british-gas-to-donate-10-of-profits-to-help-customers-with-energy-bills-with-grants-of-up-to-750-per-home-1814587?ico=most_popular

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/british-gas-energy-trust.html

We do not qualify for that as it has VERY specific requirements such as you already being in energy debt. TBH British Gas already had the energy trust for ppl in debt. They should have announced help for pensioners and vulnerable such as a social tariff. Their current measures only help those who have already gotten into debt, yet those who have struggled to keep their account in good standing get absolutely nothing from them, really winds me up TBH. 

Not saying there shouldn't be support for those in fuel debt but should be balanced with other support for other vulnerable groups too, and unless you can tell me otherwise BG do nowt whatsoever for pensioners and vulnerable?

BUFF

ThriftyThree said:

BUFF said:

That's a very low gas consumption, what do you use it for (hob perhaps)?
2/3 of your bill is the standing charge.

Yes, it is low, our gas use vs electricity has always been miniscule. The only thing gas in the house is the cooker (oven, hob and grill). We don't use gas or electric central heating. Had gas but it failed many years ago and as there are only two of us in the house we just heat the rooms we occupy. 

Not sure we can really do much about that standing charge since we can't rebalance our usage towards gas (at least without a whole new central heating system - don't want the hassle or cost tbh).

I was thinking more along the lines of do you need the gas at all... Could you switch to an electric oven, grill & induction hob?
You could then do away with the gas.

pochase

What exactly do you expect them to do?

Their profit for the SVT is limited to 1.9%, and on Friday a consultation was started to reduce that even more.

And they have already donated 10% of the profit last week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62666221

At-a-glance: What British Gas is offering

• British Gas customers in fuel poverty and with less than £1,000 in savings are eligible
• A household is considered to be in fuel poverty if it has to spend 10% or more of its income on energy
• Eligible customers can apply for a one-off grant through the British Gas Energy Trust
• Since its creation last year, British Gas said "thousands" of customers received average grants of over £550
• Over a third of the recipients were on disability benefit, 30% were single parents and 25% had children under five

ThriftyThree

pochase said:

What exactly do you expect them to do?

Their profit for the SVT is limited to 1.9%, and on Friday a consultation was started to reduce that even more.

Some of the bigger suppliers like BG (who I am mainly referring to) are owned by Centrica who are raking it in, so absolutely could have more provision in place to help their customers, or simply not raise prices all the way to the top of the cap - ppl forget it's a maximum NOT a minimum, they could always charge less than it yet always choose not to!

pochase

Sure, they could always chose to sell at a loss.  That is what happened last year and almost 30 suppliers went bust.

[Deleted User]

Cross-subsidy between different parts of the value chain was banned.

Originally, this was to prevent companies that owned generation or production facilities from running retail as a loss-leader and forcing other suppliers to go bust.

ThriftyThree

BUFF said:

ThriftyThree said:

BUFF said:

That's a very low gas consumption, what do you use it for (hob perhaps)?
2/3 of your bill is the standing charge.

Yes, it is low, our gas use vs electricity has always been miniscule. The only thing gas in the house is the cooker (oven, hob and grill). We don't use gas or electric central heating. Had gas but it failed many years ago and as there are only two of us in the house we just heat the rooms we occupy. 

Not sure we can really do much about that standing charge since we can't rebalance our usage towards gas (at least without a whole new central heating system - don't want the hassle or cost tbh).

I was thinking more along the lines of do you need the gas at all... Could you switch to an electric oven, grill & induction hob?
You could then do away with the gas.

Yes, good point. We actually considered doing that about 10-15 years ago when choosing a cooker but unfortunately it turned out we didn't have a cooker outlet in the kitchen so would have needed more electrical work so went/stuck with gas for ease of installation. 

Wouldn't we pay more though with unit cost for electricity being higher or are you saying removing that gas standing charge would offset that? 

We actually need a new cooker soon so definitely something to consider. 

Then again, with talk of enforced blackouts do we really want to get rid of the one thing in our house that can provide heat without electricity?

ThriftyThree

pochase said:

Sure, they could always chose to sell at a loss.  That is what happened last year and almost 30 suppliers went bust.

Well maybe they should all just go bust and renationalise because the current set up isn't working either unless you actually consider where we are now to be anything other than a total disaster. Major change is needed IMHO.