British Gas underbilling

Eldi_Dos

[Deleted User] said:

Eldi_Dos said:

rothesy said:

Not much tea & sympathy around these parts......

Was wondering if anyone else thinks that unit rates for electricity and gas should rise in bands with consumption, bit like income tax rates go up with earnings. We look to be facing a difficult couple of years and should all be trying to cut our consumption.

Tiered rates penalise the wrong people.

Would they though, when temperatures drop below a certain level for seven days DWP automatically pay a cold weather payment into accounts of who are eligible. That database could be used to notify power companies  who should not be on a tiered rate.

[Deleted User]

Eldi_Dos said:

Deleted_User said:

Eldi_Dos said:

rothesy said:

Not much tea & sympathy around these parts......

Was wondering if anyone else thinks that unit rates for electricity and gas should rise in bands with consumption, bit like income tax rates go up with earnings. We look to be facing a difficult couple of years and should all be trying to cut our consumption.

Tiered rates penalise the wrong people.

Would they though, when temperatures drop below a certain level for seven days DWP automatically pay a cold weather payment into accounts of who are eligible. That database could be used to notify power companies  who should not be on a tiered rate.

So the people who get cold weather payment are the only people who should be exempt?  There are no others, for any reason?

That's nice and neat, considering that every other scheme misses some people out who should be in, and includes some people who should be out.

Perhaps every scheme should just use this magically accurate DWP method? 

Eldi_Dos

Think there is a danger of circling of wagons here and we end up sniping at each other from there.

My first post on this thread was prompted by someone using nearly 21000 kwh in under a year and being able to run two electric cars, should they pay more as their consumption goes up,especially as there is a fear of blackouts this winter. myself I am trying to drive down my usage of electricity from around 3500 kwh not purely for cost but to help security of supply.

Do not think there is anything magic about the DWP method but I was glad of its accuracy when I had the misfortune of being out of work one particularly cold winter and we received them.

[Deleted User]

Eldi_Dos said:

Think there is a danger of circling of wagons here and we end up sniping at each other from there.

My first post on this thread was prompted by someone using nearly 21000 kwh in under a year and being able to run two electric cars, should they pay more as their consumption goes up,especially as there is a fear of blackouts this winter. myself I am trying to drive down my usage of electricity from around 3500 kwh not purely for cost but to help security of supply.

Do not think there is anything magic about the DWP method but I was glad of its accuracy when I had the misfortune of being out of work one particularly cold winter and we received them.

It's not circling wagons.  It's reiterating points that have been raised and discussed several times.

There are many perfectly acceptable reasons why someone might need to be using more electricity.  Home medical equipment, poor quality tenanted housing, larger or multi-generation family to name just a few.  If you make higher use more expensive, you penalise them even more than they already are.  I'm not sure that you can guarantee that all of those circumstances (or any of the others that I haven't named directly but which are equally justifiable) would be picked up by the DWP method without any exceptions.