Huge rise on Energy bills

I too am in the fortunate position of being able to cope with the increase, however, I think affording a warm home, hot water and at least one hot meal a day shouldn't be a luxury in 2022.

I have decided to increase my donations to a food bank because if more families can get help with food and household items it will hopefully leave them more to pay their heating bills.

A few years ago I tried to return the extra heating allowance and was told there is no mechanism for that. I presume this loan will be the same.

Just like Sunak’s eat out scheme this latest “loan” scheme simply hasn’t been thought through.

It is all about the headlines and no thought to what happens “downstream”

Whitewavemark2

Just like Sunak’s eat out scheme this latest “loan” scheme simply hasn’t been thought through.

It is all about the headlines and no thought to what happens “downstream”

I tend to agree with you on this point it seems a very convoluted scheme for the sake of a couple of hundred quid

Ginny Age UK have a scheme where kind people who do not need the £200 Winter Fuel Allowance, can send it to them and they guarantee that all monies recieved will be ring-fenced to be used to help older people suffering fuel poverty.

Hetty58

Dickens - we had that - public utilities - until a certain Mrs Thatcher decided to privatise them!

Yep!

... she privatised our core utilities, Jaguar, British Telecom, the remainder of Cable & Wireless and British Aerospace, Britoil and British Gas.

Our fragmented energy system means we are now vulnerable, very, to global supply shocks... <<<sigh>>>

We could've created our own multinational 'EDF' - but state ownership was anathema to Thatcher...

Coastpath

In my last house the old man who lived opposite me used to walk around in his hot as Hades house with his shirt off every single day of the year. He had big windows and was a very big, hairy fellow. I wish he'd worn a vest.

Is that why you moved Coastpath ?

HA! No, but after we'd moved I was very glad not to be confronted with that man's hairy nipples every time I opened the curtains.

Writing that has reminded me of Friday Night Dinner

Sunak’s scheme isn’t going to work is it?

“I share a house with 3 other lads and we pay rent with bills included.

Therefore our landlord will get the £200 bill reduction, but ALL of us will be charged the £40?!

So, the government lends £200 to the landlord, and the renters collectively pay back £800 over 5 years?! Scam.”

My daughter said this afternoon that she like me would rather not have the loan.

Whitewave - Of course this silly two hundred pounds is a total scam. Each household that pays bills will get this money this coming October, whether they want it or not. Not a loan, as there are no loan contract. It is an extra tax forced on us.

Then for five years every household paying bills will pay an extra £40.00, whether or not they were recipients of the original two hundred pounds. So, youngsters in the mid-teens now will be paying this money when they set up home.

It is a landlords dream - they will receive that two hundred pounds in 2022, and for the following five years will be able to charge each of their tenants an extra forty quid, even though they will only be paying this once each year.

But.....then what do you expect from a billionaire Tory chancellor? His job is to protect his own billions, and that of his mates.

Apparently it is thought that only 80% of energy users will get the £200, but 100% will have to repay it.

It really is a dreadful scam.

Whitewavemark2

Apparently it is thought that only 80% of energy users will get the £200, but 100% will have to repay it.

It really is a dreadful scam.

I really thought he was brighter than that.

Perhaps he'll abandon the daft idea when someone does the sums for him and points out the anamolies.

What happens if the householder dies - will the estate be charged (if there is one?)

It’s untrue that everyone will recieve £200. Households in October will receive £200.
But those who buy or rent homes afterwards will the following April have to pay £40 on top of their bills, regardless. It’s appalling

Pumpkinpie

It’s untrue that everyone will recieve £200. Households in October will receive £200.
But those who buy or rent homes afterwards will the following April have to pay £40 on top of their bills, regardless. It’s appalling

Exactly.

And this chap is eyeing the leadership of the Tory party,

Is he a 5th columnist, working to destroy the tory party?

Or does he think that voters are too thick to notice the scam?

Or does he just hate the idea of people (apart from the rich) having enough money to live in comfort?

To think he's being tipped as our next PM ?

It is worrying that a man in charge of the country's finances has shown himself to have a serious lack of awareness. The Eat out to Help Out scheme was controversial, but, to an extent, I can see the reasoning behind it, to help out hospitality, but his other recent decisions such as his cavalier dismissal of the fraudulent business help scheme claims, and this offensively unhelpful and inefficient fuel loan scheme are worrying.

To give Sunak the benefit of the doubt, let's assume that he is a well intentioned politician. But I do wonder whether it is even possible for someone, who is so incredibly rich, ever able to put himself in the shoes of ordinary folk, let alone the very poor.

varian

To give Sunak the benefit of the doubt, let's assume that he is a well intentioned politician. But I do wonder whether it is even possible for someone, who is so incredibly rich, ever able to put himself in the shoes of ordinary folk, let alone the very poor.

To be fair he had quite an ordinary start in life he hasn’t always had money.

His father was a GP, his mother a pharmacist, and he went to Winchester - so not that ordinary.

Casdon

His father was a GP, his mother a pharmacist, and he went to Winchester - so not that ordinary.

But not in the league of the super wealthy either the money is on his wife’s side

Agreed rosie1959, more privileged middle class - I don’t think his family would have worried about a rise in energy bills though.

Casdon I am sure they would, especially if they were paying Winchester school fees.

We paid secondary school fees and I can assure you that even with us both in professional jobs, when the fees come from income, the pips squeak on everything else.

M0nica

Casdon I am sure they would, especially if they were paying Winchester school fees.

We paid secondary school fees and I can assure you that even with us both in professional jobs, when the fees come from income, the pips squeak on everything else.

That's through choice, though, not being forced into barely scraping by (or not) because your income is low.

Paying for independent education for your DC is a choice only the relatively wealthy could make.

It’s relative though Monica isn’t it? Most professionals weren’t ever in a position where we had to choose between eating and heating the house - and we had the potential to earn more if we needed to - certainly GPs and pharmacists have always been able to supplement their income.

What to do with the extra £200?- I know pay off the £200 loan I am forced to have.

M0nica

Casdon I am sure they would, especially if they were paying Winchester school fees.

We paid secondary school fees and I can assure you that even with us both in professional jobs, when the fees come from income, the pips squeak on everything else.

?