Official advice on fuel hurts poor families

[Sweetpea]

Struggling families who follow government advice on how to cut fuel bills risk paying more, campaigners have warned after new figures suggested the strategy is backfiring.
Ministers recently launched a drive advising customers to switch supplier to make savings on soaring gas and electricity bills. But five million Britons who have prepayment gas and electricity meters - including some of the poorest households and many in rented homes - ended up paying an average of £8 a year more, according to figures from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
In many cases, they are already paying over the odds because fuel companies charge prepay customers higher rates.
The revelation follows an announcement from power company EDF that bills are to rise by an average of £200 a year, raising fears about how pensioners and families on tight budgets will cope.

Official advice on fuel hurts poor families | Money | The Observer


I know people in this situation, and it just gets more and more difficult. They go without electricity and food on a regular basis.

[Haqa]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

In many cases, they are already paying over the odds because fuel companies charge prepay customers higher rates.

This is the bit that drives me NUTS... they force these prepay meters on the poorest and then use them as a cash lever... It's wrong..

H.

[Sweetpea]

Why it is considered legal beats me.

[Haqa]

Stealing money from the people... Do you really think the government are going to make THAT illegal?

H.

[Churchill]

The more money they allow these companies to take from people, the more money they get back into an empty, or should I say, heavily overdrawn treasury. NL, are simply displaying the care and attention for the Country an d people that they so famously love. Africa