Home heating oil help. We cannot wait for the 'detail'. Can help come retrospectively? Need oil NOW 17 September 2022 at 9:18PM edited 21 September 2022 at 4:47PM in LPG, heating oil, solid & other fuels 38 replies 3.4K views

Spoonie_Turtle

Francis63 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Francis63 said: 

I am not entitled to any benefits. This is not about getting means tested help. I have a redundancy payment which is meant to help me over the redundancy and to live off. It is not intended to go on subsidising the heating help that others are getting. It was only 12,000 pounds (after 35 years of loyal service), and it is running out fast. I have no income. I live alone. I am a very low electricity user, but my heating bill is enormous.

Not what you were asking, but: if you have no income and only £12,000 in savings are you sure you don't qualify for benefits?  If you haven't checked entitlement recently, these are decent calculators if you fill everything in accurately:
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

I have more than the 12,000 redundancy payment in savings.
So in total a bit more than 16,000. 
However I have a large interest only mortgage that will have to be fully paid back in a few years time, so overall in debt.
However, this doesn't count as far as mea s testing goes you can't offset your mortgage. 

In that case, as soon as your savings reach £16,000 you should check eligibility and claim (unless you're over pension age where the rules are different, but I infer that's not the case as you have no state pension income).

How long ago were you made redundant?  You may well be entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance which is not means-tested.

[If you wanted to claim means-tested benefits now, you could pay enough towards your mortgage now to bring your savings down to £16k - usually spending savings to ensure entitlement is classed as deprivation of capital, but for Universal Credit paying off debt is specifically not DoC.
But you should check potential entitlement first, putting your details into the calculator as if you had £16k or £15,999 savings, before making any decision.  If you want to find out more about UC, this is a good website: https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/is-it-for-me/
And members over on the benefits board are good for answering any questions you might have.]

lindatoo

QrizB said:

lindatoo said:

Each month from Oct I will pay them my direct debit which they will then refund to me and they will keep the remainder from my £67/66 as a credit. So over the winter I will be building more credit.

That's not how it's meant to work either. Each month they will take your regular DD and each month they will reund you £66 or £67.

The British Gas website

If you pay by Direct Debit

We'll send the money straight to your bank each month – like a refund – once your Direct Debit has gone through. If your monthly Direct Debit payment is lower than the monthly discount value, the remaining balance will be applied to your energy account.

For example:
If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account.

Ultrasonic

lindatoo said:

QrizB said:

lindatoo said:

Each month from Oct I will pay them my direct debit which they will then refund to me and they will keep the remainder from my £67/66 as a credit. So over the winter I will be building more credit.

That's not how it's meant to work either. Each month they will take your regular DD and each month they will reund you £66 or £67.

The British Gas website

If you pay by Direct Debit

We'll send the money straight to your bank each month – like a refund – once your Direct Debit has gone through. If your monthly Direct Debit payment is lower than the monthly discount value, the remaining balance will be applied to your energy account.

For example:
If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account.

Do you know what your average daily electricity use is in kWh? How much credit you may build up this way will obviously depend quite how low your electricity use is but in practice I suspect it won't be that much credit. 

dunstonh

Francis63 said:

dunstonh said:

Oil has dropped in price over the last few days and is back to the level around March time and whilst it is about 30% higher than the average over the last 5 years, it is not that bad.  Plus, we got away with dirt cheap oil in 2020.  So, you take the rough with the smooth.

Mine was 41p p/l last November.
Now is 91p (plus VAT)

Nov 2020 was around 41p.  By Nov 2021 is was back into high 50s/low 60s.  By April it was £1.15.  Currently, it is 85p

lindatoo

Ultrasonic said:

lindatoo said:

QrizB said:

lindatoo said:

Each month from Oct I will pay them my direct debit which they will then refund to me and they will keep the remainder from my £67/66 as a credit. So over the winter I will be building more credit.

That's not how it's meant to work either. Each month they will take your regular DD and each month they will reund you £66 or £67.

The British Gas website

If you pay by Direct Debit

We'll send the money straight to your bank each month – like a refund – once your Direct Debit has gone through. If your monthly Direct Debit payment is lower than the monthly discount value, the remaining balance will be applied to your energy account.

For example:
If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account.

Do you know what your average daily electricity use is in kWh? How much credit you may build up this way will obviously depend quite how low your electricity use is but in practice I suspect it won't be that much credit. 

I use about 2.5KWh per day. I have become an electricity miser.
My heating and hot water is gas and I pay 23.94p per unit and 22.63p SC for electricity fixed until Nov 23. I am about £120 in credit as they doubled my direct debit up in May and then reduced it back to the original in July.

I agree compared to some it may not seem like a lot of credit but its going to take me a while to use it. Meanwhile I have to pay SVT for gas, so my gas will increase yr on yr by a significant amount but my funds will be tied up with BG. They may refund me as they said on the phone, they may not, you can never be sure if your getting the right information and it won't be the end of the world but I believe that the help was supposed to be for getting through the winter months. 

I am paying about 30 per month to BG

Ultrasonic

lindatoo said:

Ultrasonic said:

lindatoo said:

QrizB said:

lindatoo said:

Each month from Oct I will pay them my direct debit which they will then refund to me and they will keep the remainder from my £67/66 as a credit. So over the winter I will be building more credit.

That's not how it's meant to work either. Each month they will take your regular DD and each month they will reund you £66 or £67.

The British Gas website

If you pay by Direct Debit

We'll send the money straight to your bank each month – like a refund – once your Direct Debit has gone through. If your monthly Direct Debit payment is lower than the monthly discount value, the remaining balance will be applied to your energy account.

For example:
If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account.

Do you know what your average daily electricity use is in kWh? How much credit you may build up this way will obviously depend quite how low your electricity use is but in practice I suspect it won't be that much credit. 

I use about 2.5KWh per day. I have become an electricity miser.
My heating and hot water is gas and I pay 23.94p per unit and 22.63p SC for electricity fixed until Nov 23. I am about £120 in credit as they doubled my direct debit up in May and then reduced it back to the original in July.

I agree compared to some it may not seem like a lot of credit but its going to take me a while to use it. Meanwhile I have to pay SVT for gas, so my gas will increase yr on yr by a significant amount but my funds will be tied up with BG. They may refund me as they said on the phone, they may not, you can never be sure if your getting the right information and it won't be the end of the world but I believe that the help was supposed to be for getting through the winter months. 

I am paying about 30 per month to BG

Apologies, I was thinking you were the OP when I asked my question.

Section62

Francis63 said:

Section62 said:

Francis63 said:

My electricity bill is very small...

You have a mains electric supply?  You'll get the £400.  As simple as that.

You'll either get the money refunded to your bank account, or your supplier will reduce your direct debit.

No I won't. I am such a low electricity user. My expense is oil, not electricity. It won't work out that way.

Yes, you really will.

A total of £400 will be credited to your electricity account over the Winter.  It doesn't matter how little electricity you use, you will get the £400.

Whether the £400 will be automatically credited (back) to your bank account or not depends on your supplier's policy.

It will work out that you get £400.

(Not sure if there is a way of making that any clearer?)

lindatoo

Section62 said:

Francis63 said:

Section62 said:

Francis63 said:

My electricity bill is very small...

You have a mains electric supply?  You'll get the £400.  As simple as that.

You'll either get the money refunded to your bank account, or your supplier will reduce your direct debit.

No I won't. I am such a low electricity user. My expense is oil, not electricity. It won't work out that way.

Yes, you really will.

A total of £400 will be credited to your electricity account over the Winter.  It doesn't matter how little electricity you use, you will get the £400.

Whether the £400 will be automatically credited (back) to your bank account or not depends on your supplier's policy.

It will work out that you get £400.

(Not sure if there is a way of making that any clearer?)

I said exactly the same as you but I then deleted my comment because I don't think the OP is just referring to the £400, as of course they will get that as you say, but I think they are referring to the price cap help that Truss mentioned a week or so ago when she said there would be help for people on alternative fuels.

They are asking if they buy their fuel now and then if oil is capped will they be able to claim the difference between what they have paid and any capped price if there is going to be one.

annabanana82

Boiler juice released an announcement today speculating what they think the help will be, (it's not particularly helpful)

1) a fund that will help everyone
2) removal or reduction of VAT
3) a fund that helps those most in need. 

My instinct is that it will be option 3 and the clue is in the title "discretionary". If someone has over £16k of savings there will be many others ahead in the queue for help. 

I gambled two weeks ago to buy oil paying 86ppl, today in my area it's 10ppl cheaper, but it could have gone either way, but I wanted a peace of mind. 

Apodemus

annabanana82 said:

Boiler juice released an announcement today speculating what they think the help will be, (it's not particularly helpful)

1) a fund that will help everyone
2) removal or reduction of VAT
3) a fund that helps those most in need. 

My instinct is that it will be option 3 and the clue is in the title "discretionary". If someone has over £16k of savings there will be many others ahead in the queue for help. 

I gambled two weeks ago to buy oil paying 86ppl, today in my area it's 10ppl cheaper, but it could have gone either way, but I wanted a peace of mind. 

I agree that #3 on that list is the most likely.  And I agree with the view expressed earlier that, since oil is currently cheaper than the capped price of gas per kWh, there is no strong argument in favour of general support for oil users.

However, I'm also in the waiting-for-news-before-filling-my-tank camp as there is a chance that politics trumps logic (as is so often the case!).  I'm sure I am not alone in this!