Electricity prepayment amount

It looks as if todays Budget is addressing this anomaly and injustice and prepayment tariffs in future should be the same as for Direct Debit customers.

On Facebook there's an 'Energy Support and Advice UK' page and mny of the posts are heartbreaking and sobering in the extreme.

The problem is Monica there are people on here who will just accept your statement as fact ,that the price is high because of previous debt and that isn't the case .Prepayment charges have always been higher ,it punishes the poor .

I can believe that. Especially if they have an immersion heater, they eat money. If there are old storage heaters in, or panel heaters then they are expensive. I’m in a three bed all electric house and when we have the heating on all day at weekends we use about £20 a day.

paddyanne You are arguing with yourself. I stated a fact, offered no opinion, the rest lies with you.

So ...the way to help them out of debt is to give them higher bills ? Doesn't make sense .My son is fortunate the £600 + a month was doable but if he'd been struggling is it fair to let families be punished because of government policies .After all MP's can claim energy bills for first AND second homes and we pay their wages .
I do think they forget that !

paddyann54 I know that. but, nevertheless, for some they are paying back arrears that way. That was all I said.

It’s easy to spend £10 a day in cold weather if it includes heating in an old poorly insulated property. If you have a baby or are elderly is very hard to find the money.
My electricity is 35p kWh and Gas 5p kWh so gas would be far cheaper but if it’s not available you are stuck

Monica There are an awful lot of people who aren't/never have been in debt had these meters forced on them .
My sons family moved house in November ,a month BEFORE the move they arranged their energy account to be transferred .Only to find they had been put on a prepayment metre without their consent .It took 3 months and over 50 hours on phone calls to get it taken away and their fixed rate reinstated .
In the meantime it cost them over £600 a month which they now have fight to get back.The energy companies are coining it in most folk dont have the patience my son and DIL have so just accept it .

Quite a a number of people on prepayment meters are on them because they owe the energy company money and their unit rate it adjusted so that they are paying off debt as well as for current usage.

That's cheap for heating, hot water, lighting etc in a one bedroomed flat, especially if on a pre-payment meter. Sadly.

That’s cheap for heating a one bedroom flat.

Dragonfly It does include heating.
Blossoming Thanks, I thought perhaps the person might be mistaken or exagerrating for sympathy. Maybe not after all.

Yes. These meters are more expensive than other payment methods and the energy price cap for them is higher (£4,358 at present). £10 per day is £3650 for a year and it is entirely feasible.

I cannot believe that as we do not spend £10 a day on electricity and we have a 5 bedroom house. I know pre-payment meters are more expensive but surely not that much. Of course it could include heating in which case it could easily be right.