Energy price cap to rise on 1 October 2021

www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/record-gas-prices-drive-price-cap-ps139-customers-encouraged-contact-supplier-support-and-switch-better-deal-if-possible

www.ofgem.gov.uk/news-and-views/blog/energy-bills-are-rising-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

So, a price rise from 1 October 2021 for many people.

But there are other factors too.

For people on protected tariffs, when the tariff ends there new tariff will probably be affected by this price rise.

The figures are misleading in that everybody gets a bill depending on what they use, a statement that a bill will rise from £x to £y is just wrong. It is not clear to me whether those figures are for gas, electricity, both together or what.

My home is all-electric. My electricity bill was just under £2400 for the year up intil 31st March 2021, and the rate has gone up by about 40% from then as I was on a three-year protected tariff. I am now on the default tariff as all the protected tariffs require me to agree to having a smart meter installed and I don't want one anyway and certainly not during the pandemic. Even so, the tariff offered was for only one year.

A further problem is that the rise will not feed through to the State Pension for 18 months!

This delay in upraising the State Pension might have been reasonable years ago with manual calculation and so on.

I consider that State Pension should be increased each month based on the inflation figure for the previous month. With modern computing and pensions paid electronically to bank accounts it could be done.

So I may need to pay around £400 a year extra for electricity.

I used to be in the habit of putting the immersion heater on for a while when I got up each day, sometimes forgetting to turn if off for many hours so a tank of very hot water was wasted (I know, I know!). Since the about 40% price rise I do not do that now, so there will be some saving, but I am not sure how much.

Electricity, council tax, telephone bill, water rates, all these things seem to go up by a bigger percentage than do pensions. Price reductions in things that I don't buy seem to keep the inflation rate down - just what is in the so-called shopping basket which is used to calculate inflation? Does anyone know please?

Rant rant rant!

But it is good to be alive.