Energy bill New Charge

[Bper]

The energy price cap is to fall by £20 a month, the industry regulator has announced, but households are to face an additional "temporary" charge to help suppliers support struggling customers with record levels of debt.

Ofgem has warned that energy companies like British Gas, OVO, EDF, Octopus and more can now charge customers an extra £28 to help pay for others' unpaid bills - meaning higher fees regardless of supplier.

 A spokesperson for Ofgem said: "We are also allowing a one-off extra payment of £28 per year (£2.33 per month) to make sure suppliers have sufficient funds to support customers who are struggling. This will be added to bills of people who pay for their energy by direct debit or standing credit.

Is this fair to paying customers to bail out energy company debts despite record profits.😡

[Primus1]

Yes, god forbid they should use some of their vast profits and executives bonuses, same as the water companies, we have to pay for them dumping raw sewage into our waterways…

[AndrueC]

Those are energy suppliers. They are not making huge profits. Several of them were driven out of business over the last couple of years.

[Bper]

11 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Those are energy suppliers. They are not making huge profits. Several of them were driven out of business over the last couple of years.

Hi Andrue, You say energy suppliers are not making huge profits.

Profits at British Gas have surged tenfold after the industry watchdog relaxed restrictions on how much money energy companies could make from their bills. Operating profits at the utility provider surged to £751m last year, up from £75m in 2022.

If £751m is not a huge profit and one of the reasons we are paying higher energy prices is because the several that went bust we the customers have bailed the debt out.🙂

[AndrueC]

Those are effectively revenue that was held back from previous years and will be a one-off.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68303647

"The losses were incurred due to British Gas, along with several other suppliers, taking on customers and honouring existing contracts when dozens of small energy providers went bust in 2021 when gas prices surged and made price promises to customers undeliverable.

Ofgem confirmed it "allowed" companies to recover "some of the losses they incurred during the energy crisis".

"This one-off adjustment is reflected in the first half of the year and will therefore show in the profits for the whole year and this is why most suppliers are showing higher than usual profits for this period," a spokesperson said."

There's not a lot of profit to be had normally from retail sales and BG can't take money from its parent company - Centrica - because that would be anticompetitive.

[AndrueC]

But I'll agree with you on your moan about water companies. A lot of them have been almost asset stripped. Taken private then saddled with debt.

[Haliotis]

It is totally unacceptable for the energy companies to be given access to impose non-earned debit on customers through their direct debit arrangements, in order to help those struggling to pay.  Through Ofgem, the government are passing the problem onto the shoulders of innocent energy customers.  As for “struggling”, how many of these people are only in trouble because of their failure to manage their financial affairs properly?  I also wonder how this Ofgem/Energy supplier arrangement conflicts with the Direct Debit Guarantee issued by the banks.  Does it not provide compensation where money has been taken wrongly, and without your authority or consent?  This must surely apply where money in excess of your debt has been taken without your authority.

Ofgem are taking action which contravenes the integrity of the D/D Guarantee, and is fraudulently decaying the security of your cash with which your bank has been entrusted.

Note that those with pre-payment meters are to be exempt from this charge, because they are not in debt.  Well neither am I (my energy supplier is holding hundreds of pounds of my money in credit), nor many other s such as myself.

The answer is, of course, to scrap the D/D and pay the TRUE energy costs as they fall due.

[Parts-King]

However, the boss of Centrica (owners of BG) pay their top man £4.5 MILLION a year 

Don't get me started 

[Mjolinor]

A friend of mine is making an old house into a green showcase. For this he does not want electricity oir gas coming into the house at all.

He still has to pay standing charge for the electricity supply. Gas just capped the incomer but he has had to pay £1800 to dig up the road and disconnect the cable soming into the house in order to not have to pay standing charge.

That is crazy.

[Bper]

1 hour ago, Mjolinor said:

A friend of mine is making an old house into a green showcase. For this he does not want electricity oir gas coming into the house at all.

He still has to pay standing charge for the electricity supply. Gas just capped the incomer but he has had to pay £1800 to dig up the road and disconnect the cable soming into the house in order to not have to pay standing charge.

That is crazy.

Hi John, that seems a bit unfair to say the least. Surely if they took the meter away and locked the electricity head after the meter had been disconnected he wouldn't need to pay any further charges.

If it's a old house he may want to convert it back to domestic use later on and he would have to pay further costs for the cable to be reinstated.😄

 

 

[Bper]

Millions of households will see their daily electricity standing charges rise to a record £219 a year from April - despite overall energy bills falling.These charges cannot be avoided by cutting down on gas and electricity used. It just gets better, lower the cap then raise the standing charge. Still no profiteering going on then.😡

[Mjolinor]

55 minutes ago, Bper said:

Hi John, that seems a bit unfair to say the least. Surely if they took the meter away and locked the electricity head after the meter had been disconnected he wouldn't need to pay any further charges.

If it's a old house he may want to convert it back to domestic use later on and he would have to pay further costs for the cable to be reinstated.😄

 

 

He tried everything and they still insisted he pay hte standing charge. If your electricity is disconnected then they just remove hte main fuse and put the carrier back with a tamper seal but you still have to pay standing charge.

I used to work for NORWEB and I have never known anyone want to not pay standing charge so it is a first for me and it just seems that they wrap you up in red tape. I can't get my head round who gets paid, who takes the money and how to avoid it any other way than to remove the network from your house.

 

 

[Bper]

1 hour ago, Mjolinor said:

He tried everything and they still insisted he pay hte standing charge. If your electricity is disconnected then they just remove hte main fuse and put the carrier back with a tamper seal but you still have to pay standing charge.

I used to work for NORWEB and I have never known anyone want to not pay standing charge so it is a first for me and it just seems that they wrap you up in red tape. I can't get my head round who gets paid, who takes the money and how to avoid it any other way than to remove the network from your house.

 

 

I can't understand the energy suppliers have a licence to provide gas and electricity. They buy this on the energy markets but do not own the infrastructure.

They do not own the electricity meter unless they installed it. IMO once the meter is removed and the head sealed then no service is provided.

Why didn't he cancel his energy supplier then no standing charge could be made. If he would have received a letter down the line asking whom he is with now he could inform them he no longer has a working supply at the premises. 

This situation is ridiculous on this basis if you change your energy supplier multiple times each one would own the meter and main cable.

This is BS and he should ask for explanation.☹️

[Roy124]

I don't think it just impecunious consumers spending on beer and baccy.  It is the companies that popped up offering large discounts to attract new business.   They contracted to buy gas at a low price and sold fixed price, fixed term contracts.   When the wholesale price rose they could not afford to pay and went bust.

Customers of failed companies then had to take on those customers at the original contracted prices.

I was switched to SSE when my supplier went TU.  Once my contact ended SSE offered me a large variable tariff.   I switched again to OVO who, with Octopus, were successful newsboys.   Indeed Ovo then took over SSE.

[Cyker]

It's a bit galling that they are charging us extra money to help cover people that struggle to pay, but when you struggle to pay you are met with threatening letters, fines, bailiffs and disconnection.

The standing charge is going to be the new primary income for them - They are anticipating a lot of lost revenue from people installing solar panels and the winding down of gas (New houses don't even get gas supplies!), and this is the tactic they are using to ensure that, even if you don't use any grid electricity, they can still turn a healthy profit.

I didn't realize you can't even avoid the standing charges, even if you are disconnected from the grid.

It seems a bit disingenuous and opposed to the previous message of saving energy, as this reduces the incentive to save energy since no matter how much you cut down you're going to get hit with more and more standing charge while the unit cost of the energy itself goes down.

 

[Roy124]

Don't misunderstand standing charges.  The price is set by OFGEM.  Individual suppliers can tweak it but can't make any significant changes.   The main purpose is a subsidy for Wind Farms and possibly standby Battery farms.   Wind farms are paid when there is no wind.  They are paid when there is too much wind.  We pay the wind farms when they supply power.

There was a suggestion that the daily charge should be cut - it would encourage people to ditch gas.  The suggestion was to increase the gas charge to encourage people to ditch gas.

Don't blame your energy supplier, except BG.  We are being played by the politicians.   And anyone who thinks a change of Government will change the robber is fooling themselves.