Aged parent in dire straits with energy costs

ariarnia

macman said:

Rimkh2 said:

Gas per kWh is trebling to £10.00 per unit. I will be visiting him again early next month so will go through all of these things again.

It's 10p per kWh.

so £1 about a unit on the meter (if m3). 

macman

Is it possible to fit an additional gas fire and cut back on the electric heating? It's costing him three times as much to run.
Please can you post up his annual kWh usage on each fuel, as £££'s don't tell us anything useful. What fix is he currently on?
Why did EDF not install a smart gas meter as well?

Novice_investor101

Im £730 in credit with British Gas but only because they’ve not billed me since 2nd Sept. My spreadsheet tells me I’m only about £110 in credit once my usage to date has come off. He may well be in the same situation. 

Scot_39

Rimkh2 said:

My 93 year old father lives on his own in a small 2 bed terraced house. He is currently on a dual fuel contract with edf, paying £200.00 per month. His account is over £600.00 in credit. He lives solely on a state pension of £160.00 per week. Edf have recently called him and told him from 1st January this will increase to £400.00 per month. That is £4800.00 per year for a single pensioner in a small house. He will be unable to keep paying within a few months. Help!!

Hopefully your father will have gotten the extra £300 WFP this year - £600 total - based on that level of income.  Not that will cover very long at £200 per month.

The best way to challange a big rise in DD - is to have annual usage figures - a day or a week wont cut it.

They should also provide a break-down of their revised calculation.

But bear in mind that although technically they don't know the rates - the EPG is going up £500 in April - and £4800 pa is more than the nominal Ofgem usage used for EPG £2500 now/£3000 come April.

Chances are - EDF will actually be prividing that information - or if your father has kept recent bills - mines appears u[dated monthly on my monthly statements from EOn. 

Every tariff change my supplier also revises it's annual estimates (just gone up another 8-9% overall in Jan - due to also being on multi-rate E10 - c6% day, c11% night)

£160 pension income - if really that low (but it's also dependent on savings etc)

Pension credit kicks in to top up pensions at that sort of income level - the last set of govt statistics showed that whilst 3m pensioners would qualify - only about 1.9m were actually claiming.

From gov UK

https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility

"Pension Credit tops up:

• your weekly income to £182.60 if you’re single"

But critically it gives other help - with council tax, rent etc possibly etc etc

There is no shame in looking into this.  It might even get some releif with energy firms - if does end up in debt.

Edit 3/1/23

I am sure you may alrerady have looked into this for your parent - but as I said before - there are over 1 million poor - and no doubt now really struggling elderly folk entitled to claim but not claim.

My mother was being short changed after my father's death - by £100s per month - for nearly 2 years - until reviewed in detail.

As a means tested benefit - it should even trigger the current revised additional payments - the £900 - in 3 half yearly £300 payments.  (This is the 2023 equivalent of last years £650)

See e.g.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-low-income-households-to-get-new-cost-of-living-payments-from-spring-2023

And specificially

"More than 8 million households on benefits will receive payments of up to £900, made in three lump sums. Eligible households will be on one of the following benefits: Universal Credit, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Pension Credit."

yp70479

Does your Dad have a smart meter for both gas and electric? Does it send readings reliably to the supplier? If so you could circumvent the whole "challenging the direct debit amount" by switching to a monthly variable direct debit. That way each month he will only be charged for what he has actually used and not the energy company's "best guess". So he could gradually work his way through the credit that he has built up. Often the companies want to bill electronically, so if you gave your email address for the billing you could monitor exactly what his costs are and give him a quick call to let him know how much will be taken from his account. If he wanted to swap back to a standard direct debit in future you would at least have monthly data to challenge any unrealistic charges. I think EDF calls this :

What is Direct Debit with exact payments and how does it work?

1. You choose to pay by Direct Debit with exact payments and pick an energy plan (tariff).
2. If you give us your meter readings regularly, you'll get a bill each month. The bill will show exactly how much you need to pay for the energy you've used. As you pay by Direct Debit, it will be paid automatically.

yp70479

Just had another thought. As your Dad lives alone is he registered for the Single Persons Discount on his council tax? This is available to anyone living alone irrespective of age or financial position. If you dad has been diagnosed with a cognitive impairment - like dementia - he can be completely exempt

Brie

EDF has likely over estimated his use to come up with the new DD amount. 

My supplier (eon) told me my DD was going to more than double due to an estimated annual use based on last January's gas and electric which they then multiplied by 14 (not 12) to give me a safety net to prevent me getting in arrears.  When I talked to someone at eon who was sensible they agreed that the DD was inflated and that my DD should actually decrease.

So get copies of his last year's bills together, do your own estimate based on the new tariff he is moving to and then left EDF know what a correct amount of DD should be.

But, yes as others say, do a full benefit check as well.  

And did you say if you have authority to speak to everyone on his behalf?  If not please get this set up.  It's easier and cheaper to do than getting POA (did you say you have that too??) and is very helpful when dealing with all the bills.  

nachtvlinders

There are energy advisors that are listed in most local authority websites who can give impartial advice on anything related to energy bills. Check out your local one in your dad's area, OP. They'll work out whether his bills are reasonable or not and also, entitlements to other benefits like the Household Support Fund (those on PC gets this, does your dad?)