Energy Price Guarantee No Longer 2 years just 6 months at current level

ariarnia

allison445 said:

This announcement yesterday was devastating news for me I do not have any more hard choices left in me 

I was thrown a rope by the government that gave me some hope for the future and I now have rope burns left by a government who make poor decisions which effect us all 

uncertanty is scary and so much has been changing constantly over the last few years I sometimes just need to grab a child or animal to hug for a bit before starting again (preferably one of mine but i'm not fussy ). the good news is that most likely nothing will now change until april at least. so we can get through this winter then turn the heating off while the energy price is still capped. before any changes in april ofgem will most likely give at least a months notice of the new cap rates and hopefully the government bods will be spending this next few months working on a plan so it won't be cobbled together at the last minute again. i'm going to do my best to not worry until at least january then take a stock take (literally of the cupboards) and review all the bills etc to figure out where we stand for 2023. 

Max68

ariarnia said:

the people we were talking about at the start were elderly people who had raised a family and were now in a larger house. our experience looking for options for the MIL the number of properties suitable for someone in that situation are much more limited than 'what's on the market'. there's a reason bungalows tend to be rare on the market and more expensive than other places the same size. 

small houses (at least in the areas we were looking) were either poorly insulated or had damp problems/no GSH. would need a lot of money to make comfortable/'update'. would cause problems for accessibility as she gets more unsteady as she gets older (her current house could be adapted if needed). there were very few options we found that wouldn't cost a huge amount of money up front or cause more problems down the line.

even putting the house on the market to sell costs money up front plus the stress and practical difficultly of actually downsizing is not as easy at 70 as it is at 30.  moving house is not easy. 

This is the problem.  Before mum became ill, we looked at a nice retirement village with her.  It was a nice option, "if" she had stayed fit and healthy.  Maintenance charges etc are the biggest issue with these places.  If mum had moved in, she would then have had to move out and into long term care a mere 6 months later and a lot of these places are particularly arduous to sell afterwards.  In mums' case it would have meant finding a place to put her into care and also paying maintenance fees etc in the retirement village until you could sell the place.  Plus, moving is stressful foremost people let alone a 75 plus year old who may have lived in the same house for 30 odd years! Easy on paper, not so much in practice.

Children of such a person could move back into the family home to care of them.  Italy for instance has a lot of families that live under the same roof.  The problem in the UK is if a person moves into care, then unless you are a spouse or a child under 16 you will then have to vacate the property if it needs to be used to fund that care.  So if you have sold or rented your own house out then that becomes an extra problem in itself.

In my case if I did move it's almost certain I would have to upgrade things like the boiler/heating system for any potential buyer.  At the very least it would have to be money off asking price so the buyer could upgrade themselves.  

As you quite rightly say a lot of these "options" cost vast amounts of money.  If I could wallop in a heat pump and buy an EV I probably would, but on my wage that's impossible.

EssexHebridean

allison445 said:

This announcement yesterday was devastating news for me I do not have any more hard choices left in me 

I was thrown a rope by the government that gave me some hope for the future and I now have rope burns left by a government who make poor decisions which effect us all 

Allison, it might help you to complete an SOA (statement of affairs) as per the link in my signature - you could then post that over on the Debt Free wannabe board where the regulars there would be able to take a look and see if there might be any possible savings that you could have missed - sometimes when things get really stressful financially it's easy to miss some areas that can be shaved, even a little. DFW is definitely not just for those who are in debt either - it is just as welcoming and supportive to those who are trying to avoid getting into that situation. 

I agree that putting this offer of help in front of people and then whipping it away is beyond cruel, too. That said though, do bear in mind that at least through the coldest months this winter you'll be in a far better position than you would have been without it - and by the time prices increase next year we will at least have the warmer months to get prepared for what is to come. 

Van_Girl

Max68 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

As I said, sharing may be the answer.

After all, we've had large population growth over lots of years and nothing like the same growth in the number of homes.  So it seems logical that people who currently live alone may need to live with someone else.

I was a student back in the 1990s.  I lodged with two different lots of middle-aged people, this was all pretty normal back then.  I got a roof over my head, they got some extra money towards the bills.

Interesting theory but at the same time would a person's rent pay the bills enough for the owner to be better off?  If not it's Imo pointless for the hassle.  I live alone in a three-bed terrace, although the third bedroom isn't enough to swing a cat so it's basically an office.  To try and save money on the drier my clothes dry in the spare bedroom which also contains everything else there is no storage for.  It's one bathroom and even when I had an ex living here it was very crowded.  With a lodger council tax would go up 25%, more energy and water would be used, more food required etc etc.  Would be interested to see what I would have to charge in rent to make it worthwhile.

No extra food is required, you don't usually feed a lodger. That said, you can offer meals and charge extra for them, if you want to. 

For me it was worthwhile. I charge £350 per month inclusive of utilities & broadband. After losing my 25% discount for CTax, and slight increase in bills, I make probably £250 a month, maybe more. It helps that my lodger is on the same page as me in terms of being careful with energy and water usage. 

However, after 8 months of sharing, I've actually asked him to leave because I feel like my home isn't my home anymore. I struggled on because of the money, before deciding it just wasn't worth it to me

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

Max68 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

As I said, sharing may be the answer.

After all, we've had large population growth over lots of years and nothing like the same growth in the number of homes.  So it seems logical that people who currently live alone may need to live with someone else.

I was a student back in the 1990s.  I lodged with two different lots of middle-aged people, this was all pretty normal back then.  I got a roof over my head, they got some extra money towards the bills.

 Would be interested to see what I would have to charge in rent to make it worthwhile.

.

if you look at shared room rate for your local area it would give you an idea of what you could charge (obviously you could go a little higher or lower depending on how badly you needed the money or how much demand there was in the area. 

here it's about £59 a week. 

Do you mean the LHA?  That's set at only the 30th percentile of market rate.

ariarnia

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Max68 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

As I said, sharing may be the answer.

After all, we've had large population growth over lots of years and nothing like the same growth in the number of homes.  So it seems logical that people who currently live alone may need to live with someone else.

I was a student back in the 1990s.  I lodged with two different lots of middle-aged people, this was all pretty normal back then.  I got a roof over my head, they got some extra money towards the bills.

 Would be interested to see what I would have to charge in rent to make it worthwhile.

.

if you look at shared room rate for your local area it would give you an idea of what you could charge (obviously you could go a little higher or lower depending on how badly you needed the money or how much demand there was in the area. 

here it's about £59 a week. 

Do you mean the LHA?  That's set at only the 30th percentile of market rate.

yes but from what i can tell with a quick look for digs in this area on gumtree and facebook its about whats charged. most i can see available right now for a single room are about 80 per week (350 a month). any higher and that then includes self contained flats so anyone with any sense would probably prefer to go for one of those than shared. like i said it depends on how much you need the money vs how much demand is in the area. 

if theres not much difference in cost between the top and bottom of the market for a room in a shared house and if most people looking will be receiving the shared room rate (if they're not students or people looking for a weekday place for work) then you can't expect to charge a huge amount more than what they're getting from the government no matter your cost. 

we're in an area where most people looking for shared rooms will be unemployed single people (we're in a deprived area and no university) so if my MIL for example was looking to take someone in then she would have to price accordingly or probably have it empty most of the time/be chasing for the money. 

MattMattMattUK

Max68 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

As I said, sharing may be the answer.

After all, we've had large population growth over lots of years and nothing like the same growth in the number of homes.  So it seems logical that people who currently live alone may need to live with someone else.

I was a student back in the 1990s.  I lodged with two different lots of middle-aged people, this was all pretty normal back then.  I got a roof over my head, they got some extra money towards the bills.

Interesting theory but at the same time would a person's rent pay the bills enough for the owner to be better off?  If not it's Imo pointless for the hassle.  I live alone in a three-bed terrace, although the third bedroom isn't enough to swing a cat so it's basically an office.  To try and save money on the drier my clothes dry in the spare bedroom which also contains everything else there is no storage for.  It's one bathroom and even when I had an ex living here it was very crowded.  With a lodger council tax would go up 25%, more energy and water would be used, more food required etc etc.  Would be interested to see what I would have to charge in rent to make it worthwhile.

It really depends where in the country you are. If I rented out my spare room it would bring in around £700 pcm, the additional council tax would be around £45 pcm, and it might cost another £75 in energy and water, so overall I would be £580 pcm better off, maybe a bit less when accounting for wear and tear and potentially additional insurance. Where as a friend who lives in a town half an hour from Manchester only pays £650 pcm to rent a three bedroom house, so it is likely his costs to rent out a room might well exceed any potential income. 

In London and the South East getting a lodger is almost certainly a win, in much of the rest of the country mileage may vary.

QrizB

Ryan_Holden said:

QrizB said:

• Ryan_Holden claims Octopus kicked them off their fix, this is the only report like this that I've seen and I'd welcome more details regarding exactly what happened.

I wouldn't say I was kicked off. I entered into the fix 2 weeks before the EPG came to light, I asked if I would be better moving to the EPG rate and they asked me to sit tight, so I did. Then I received the email saying "To ensure you get the cheapest possible energy and don't pay more than you need to, we'll automatically move you to our Flexible Octopus tarriff on October 1st". 
When I asked if I had a choice, they said the fix deal wasn't worthwhile and so was being withdrawn. 

@Ryan_Holden when you say you "entered into the fix", do you mean you started paying the new rates or did you just agree to start paying them at a future date? And then Octopus withdrew their offer before that date arrived?

QrizB

Freebird53 said:

Could a clever person please direct me to a website which shows the current gas prices?

I'm not clever but here are day ahead and month ahead prices:
https://www.marex.com/services/data-advisory/market-data/market-data-indices/

Longer periods ahead:
https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas-Futures/data

Prices are in pence per therm. Divide by 29.3 to give pence per kWh.

ariarnia

QrizB said:

Freebird53 said:

Could a clever person please direct me to a website which shows the current gas prices?

I'm not clever but here are day ahead and month ahead prices:
https://www.marex.com/services/data-advisory/market-data/market-data-indices/

Longer periods ahead:
https://www.theice.com/products/910/UK-Natural-Gas-Futures/data

Prices are in pence per therm. Divide by 29.3 to give pence per kWh.

sorry but we are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.