Vocal Voices

Using the price cap mechanism our bills will go up by £1.33 per month between April '24 and March '25 to help suppliers recover £3bn of debt due to unpaid gas and electricity bills.

This is from an Ofgem spokeswonk:

The proposals set out today are not something we take lightly. However, we feel that they are necessary to address this issue. This approach will ensure the costs are recovered fairly, without penalising a particular group of customers.

Err, HELLO! Yes you are "penalising a particular group of customers". You are penalising those of us who pay our bills in full and on time. Us honest folk, many of whom are also struggling, are being forced to cover the costs of the energy thieves. The government should step in and stop this and make the debtors, and only the debtors, pay their way.

Why should you, me, him and her, be forced through legislation to give free energy to slackers and chancers? We shouldn't.

My MP has been given a roasting over this, so should yours

Energy policy in this country is a mess. Some government advisers are still pretending that renewables will meet all our energy requirements. The government is too scared to frack; new oil fields go undeveloped. We don't develop our own gas fields but we need gas, so we import it from the USA and the middle east!

And then yes, people who pay their bills have to take a hit because of the people who don't.

I am thinking of starting an energy supply company, but only formyself. Then aftertwo years declare myself bankcrupt and get money from the Government.

So free energy for two years.

We are already paying for firms who have stopped trading because of the losses they were making due to changes in the prices in the wholesale market.

cruiser2 wrote:We are already paying for firms who have stopped trading because of the losses they were making due to changes in the prices in the wholesale market.

Precisely.

Those of us who didn't use 'chancer' suppliers such as Bulb and who pay our bills on time and in full now have to stump up more for the debtors.

Forcibly put those in debt on pre-pay meters and take a cut - just a few pence - from their pre-pay credits until their debts are paid off. They are NOT my debts.

I cannot see any moral, legal or economic reasons why I should bail them out.

This has just resurfaced again today on GB news.

The cost of gas is going up so that energy firms don't lose money when some people don't pay their bills.

As already said, why should I have to pay for those who won't pay?
The thought does occur that this is a rip off by the energy companies; a handy excuse to put their prices up. They will probably make a greater profit from those who do pay than if everyone just paid their bills and the cost of gas stayed the same.

This is like capitalism using socialism to rake more money in. Those poor people will be saved by the rest of us (socialism) whilst the energy companies make more money (capitalism).

I don't like it on many levels, including this one. If you know that will be let off paying and others will pick up the slack for you, will you be more likely to pay your bill next time, or less likely?

It sets a bad precendent.

Cromwell, it was Ofgem that bumped the price, you know, OUR erm, independent, regulator - £16 for each of us regular payers.

The combined £3bn debts are company debts and it is they who should take steps to recover them or write them off.

I notice Ofgem said nowt about us getting a payback when those same companies were sat on some £8bn of free money on their overcharging "estimates" on annualised DD payments.

Whatever happened to honesty is the best policy. I was brought up on that mantra. It seems the honest ones who pay are subsidising those who wont pay. The same goes for shoplifting. Apparently nothing under £200 is worth the police pursing the perpetrators. It follows that the shops wont take the loss, prices will be adjusted and the rest of us will have to stump up.