[cambsguy]

I don't use much electricity, so these increases in standing charges will wipe out any reductions in energy prices.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by geoffers

So you'll be able to look forward to the handy £500 winter fuel allowance payment the govt gives you next November 🤓 (and the free bus-pass comes in handy too 👍)

I had forgotten about the former but not the latter 👍

[Mailman]

@Tommysgirl

I think the Northern region has the worst SC and a whole lot more than London for example. Our unit rates are a tad lower though. I'll be running these numbers for my usage to see how this all works out for me over the coming days. 🍺

[Tommysgirl]

Originally Posted by Mailman

@Tommysgirl

I think the Northern region has the worst SC and a whole lot more than London for example. Our unit rates are a tad lower though. I'll be running these numbers for my usage to see how this all works out for me over the coming days. 🍺

I haven't worked out what difference the unit reduction rate will make to my bills yet, but I'll do that over the weekend. The new standing charges for Northern Region are disgraceful, and I don't know how they can justify it. I'd be interested to hear their excuses. 🍺

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by Tommysgirl

@Mailman & @retrotecchie

I've done a quick calculation of the Northern standing charge increases and it's going to be over £50 a year for the electricity and about £7 for the gas, far more than the £16 they were bandying about. I don't agree with regional variations, because it seems to be always the same regions who take the biggest hits.

They are eye-watering. 😭

My spreadsheet tells that I will be paying a total of £375.15 standing charges on dual-fuel post-April. When you see the annual figures they make it feel much worse than the daily figure. I agree with your calculations making that £57p.a. extra compared to the existing SC payable on the current Next Flex SVT and many other current tariffs in the Northern region.

[meldrewreborn]

@Tommysgirl

Apparently there’s a new scheme to replace broken smart meters that the major suppliers have signed up to. That’s good news for those with broken meters and for me as there will be less hassle from Eon Next for me to get one. There are about 3 million meters that don’t report to their supplier and if they were all to be fixed there would be no new meter installations for a year!!

the IHD though isn’t included in the 3 million, so fixing those, which many think is their smart meter, would be an additional measure.

Who do you think will pay for all this??

[retrotecchie]

When I lived in a social housing association rented flat, we had monthly 'service charges' for the communal areas of the building.

The charges went up more than the rent did every year. We organised a residents group and demanded a meeting with the housing executive and demanded a breakdown of the charges.

They were charging us each (54 flats) £6 a month for maintenance and upkeep of a payphone which hadn't existed in the building for several years. That was 54 x 6 x 12, or £3888.

They also had an £8 a month figure for upkeep and maintenance of the communal laundry facilities. The washing machines were always breaking down and the driers never worked.

So we pointed out the former, and our legal advisor explained that they could not reasonably charge for a phone that didn't exist. Sure enough, they had to reimburse us all and remove that component from the charges. Then they realised they had been paying BT for three years line rental for a line that no longer existed!

As for the laundry, they insisted that the couldn't remove that charge. The legal advisor then wrote them a snotty letter, demanded that a housing officer make an appointment with every tenant to inspect their property. If the tenant clearly had a plumbed in and working washing machine, then that was to be noted on file and laundry charges were to be removed from the service charge.

In any case, the housing association were obliged to provide a breakdown of all charges to allow proper scrutiny and for tenants to be able to question individual line items.

I've seen the generic breakdown of the Standing Charges, but I think it's only fair and reasonable that us customers have full disclosure as to exactly what those components are. SOLR should be long done and dusted by now...no energy supplier has gone bust in two and a half years. Apparently energy suppliers are down £3.1 billion in 'bad debt' yet thanks to fixed monthly Direct Debits, they are sitting on some £8 billion of customer credits. OFGEM mooted a £16 levy to cover losses, so why have the SCs increased by three times that figure?

Energy generation prices have more than halved in the last year....gas is about where it was three years ago at 50-something pence a therm.

So why the pitiful reduction in unit costs and a huge hike in SC? Can we have a bit of transparency please?!!

[cambsguy]

Where can we find exact standing charge rates from April ?

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by cambsguy

Where can we find exact standing charge rates from April ?

This thread will give you an idea although it will depend on your tariff.

[cambsguy]

Originally Posted by JoeSoap

This thread will give you an idea although it will depend on your tariff.

hmm that sucks, just did some calculations and my bill probably wont drop at all despite the change in energy prices.