scottish power gas bill £300+ for 1/4

anne211981

last month i received my gas and electric bill for the winter 1/4. i was clear with my gas and incredit with my electric (although i dont know how that happened with the electirc) My family at the moment are reliant on income support, and child tax credits, and we have a budget to stick too or we end up in trouble with the bank, like most people in our position. anyway i paid my electirc bill of £68 fair enough. i called them regard my gas bill as i cannot afford to pay over £300 in one go, they said i should go onto a pre-payment meter which is declined as you end up paying more. the bill was correct as i have my meter read every month, i have offered to pay £50.00 per month which on top of paying £40 per month on my £800 water bill and £30.00 per month on the electric i though was very adventurous given our circumstance.

(i would like to point out that my partner is disabled (no excues for not paying ) but he cannot work he can hardly breath or walk let alone work, and im expecting so cannot work till after having baby, and yes i have work lined up to go to (hopefully) so im not scrounging or what ever some people think people on benifits are doing (yes im bitter sorry)

but back to the point. i have offered to pay what i can on the gas, but now it seems they cant wait to they have put into a debt collectors hands who are now going to charge us £37.00 for the letter i got this morning and £200+ if it goes to court. thing is we have been through the court debt system and they wil only get £1.00 per month given our circumstances if they did take it to court. so why havent scottish power just accepted my offer of payment instead of doing this and placing us in yet more unaffordable debt, and causing me stress when im suffering high blood pressure and being told to rest and not get stressed. Im due to pay them next week but it seems they just dont want to know unless i pay them over £100.00 per month, which i would say is unafforadble for most people when all our bills are going up, or thye put a pre- payment meter in and charge me even more.

Are these companies aloud to get away with this. its scandalous, all the money they make and they kicking the poorest people when there down instead of helping them.
can anyone help. (oh yes aswell my home is well insulated with a combi bolier installed as well, we have a gas hob n gas fire. we have no radiator in our front room hence the fire being on a lot during the day in the winter. i have one child under 5)

what can i do other than scream at scottish power. i so angry with them.

SwanJon

Not sure if SP have a socail tariff - have you asked about one?

The reason they won't accept £50 a month is that you are using £100 a month, so you'd only get further into debt.

The court wouldn't set the payments at £1 a month, as you are using more than that the debt would get bigger.

You could ask about Fueld Direct where you pay for your balance at £3.05 a week, plus some more for what you are using.
Apart from that the PP meter is possibly your best option, as they can set that to recover at £3.05 a week as well, but you can monitor your use and immediately see the benefit of cutting back. You need to make this descision before they make it for you, or you'll end up paying for warrant charges etc on top of your current debt.