Its for the “median” household. The “mean” figure is higher.
This. Depending on your total usage and the which is gas vs electricity
Bottom line is that half the country will technically be in fuel poverty by January (more than 10% of income on energy), with the price cap at effectively approx. 50% of the state pension too by then. Completely unsustainable. Massive state intervention of some kind is on its way, for sure
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Yeah, I’ve told my Nan not to worry for now (easier said then done I know), I’ll only worry if no more state support is announced by 1st October. Which it surely will be.
If it isn’t, then we will make up the difference as a family to support her. Though for me my contribution will have to come from saving a lot less.
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Civil unrest is likely if this doesn’t happen. Plus big providers will go bust as direct debits start to fail on a massive scale. Martin Lewis pointed out on Newscast that they won’t even be able to install enough prepayment meters - they may need upwards of a million in January alone. The whole shebang will hit the financial, physical and social crash barriers pretty quickly at the forecast prices
So, how many here like me, pay for their energy monthly as the bill comes in? Personally, I’m not one for a massively hiked fixed direct debit, I like to know that what I’m paying for, is what I’ve used. I don’t consider my energy provider as a go to savings hub where I pump hundreds of pounds into their bank account and get zero interest for the convenience of hoping there will be enough in their coffers to pay my energy bill. I guess that kind of budgeting works for a lot of people, so each to their own. I think however, that paying any sort of ‘fixed’ direct debit, is now somewhat irrelevant in the current climate.
As someone who lives in a popular SouthWest of England seaside town, I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of visitors pour in from all over the country staying at rather expensive holiday parks and spending it seems, rather a lot of money whilst seemingly enjoying themselves in what apparently are truly dire economic times.
On the one hand, fuel poverty is beckoning and on the other, life apparently goes on as normal for a lot of people. Let’s see what happens in a couple of months time.
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I also pay for what I use with a variable direct debit. I just wish the media would make it clear that its not the Energy Suppliers making money its the Energy manufacturers. I dont get why the prices Energy Suppliers buy the fuel for isnt capped. Its insanity. People choosing not to pay their bills is going to cause higher energy costs.
As I’m now using smart meters I’ve, for the first time, changed my DD to settle each month instead of a fixed sum across the year. Like you say, there’s really no point to creating a buffer.
Liz Truss has apparently said she won’t provide anymore direct support. Just tax cuts it seems.
I think that we’ll see a u-turn on that within days of her winning the leadership contest.
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Agreed. At least I hope so.
You may well be right. Does that suggest that making a pledge beforehand might hamper her chances of winning?
Please forgive my cynicism, but I do not believe a single word spouted by any politician. Never forget, politicians cannot even grace the people with a simple “Yes” or “No” to any question one puts to them because that is a committal. I’m genuinely scared of whichever candidate just a couple of hundred thousand people out of a population of almost 70 million, are going to thrust upon us without any form of mandate from the rest of us. Apparently, there is no money to help any one, but hundreds of millions of pounds can somehow be found for other projects elsewhere. Or maybe we truly are a very rich nation and I’ve just got the wrong end of a very brown stick.
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It’s weird that you’d find this odd, they’re in Parliament to represent constituents, not to decide on their own.
On top of that journalists always push for Y/N answers on nuanced topics, it’s a very disingenuous form of interview practice.
The mandate was given at the election, the goals by large haven’t changed.
Hundreds of millions of pounds is a budget rounding error for countries with economies as large as ours. We’d be looking at billions to fix the current issues we face. Boris’ plan is pretty much the only way out of it, nuclear reactor building with one approved yearly, paired with further investment into renewables.
Except that they, in reality, vote largely according to their own values. They don’t reach out to their constituents for a steer.
For real? Those goals were set in an era when white collar workers all still had bus passes and we were still in the EU, to say nothing of the cost of living crisis!
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Politicians tend to say and do things in order to obtain power. That’s not to say that they’ll actually follow through with those things once they obtain that power 
This is perfectly reasonable but some suppliers will, I believe, offer a discount if you pay by direct debit. So, you might be paying more than you need to.
I also know that some suppliers (I was with Shell) offer a variable direct debit, which collects the exact amount on the bill each month. The advantage here is that you never over or under pay. The disadvantage is that your bill will fluctuate from month to month and have significant seasonal variation. Perhaps you’d be better with something like this, rather than paying manually on receipt of your bill?
I’d assumed this was what @Topsy2 was referring to. Paying manually would have the same effect.
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Same effect, yeah, but you might miss out on the DD discounts - Full list of energy firms offering bill discount of upto £140 - how to get it
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