Martin Lewis Answers Your Cost Of Living Questions | Good Morning Britain

"We have been inundated with

questions

about the

cost

of

living

of course, Martin Lewis is here to answer them this

morning

and we are entering much colder weather and we all want to know what effect that will have on energy prices and bills and for some people". We have some pretty disturbing news, so in January we will see a change in the prices people pay for energy under the energy price guarantee. These are not substantial changes. The substantial change occurs in April, when on average everyone will pay 20 more than they are paying rates at the moment, but in January, while if you pay by monthly direct debit on average, what you pay will not change, but each region changes slightly, for example, in the north of Scotland, January will see a 0.3 per cent drop in direct debit bills, while in the south of Scotland you will see a 1.3 per cent rise in direct debit bills. direct debit in January, the real impact here is for people with prepaid meters and bill payment receipts on average if you are on a prepaid beta.

You'll see an increase of just under one per cent, so if we take a typical bill from someone with typical usage, it's a meaningless figure, but it gives us the scale we're talking about, from £2,559 a year currently to £2,580 a year. year, if you pay when you get a bill, which I know a lot of people have changed because they don't like their direct debits being too high, then they say: "forget that I'm only going to pay for what I use, you're going to pay a lot more will increase in January by 1.58 per cent, so from the current average of £2,715 a year to £2,758 a year, meaning paying a bill bill on average for someone with typical usage is £200, they will be £260 a year more, that's what I'll pay for the privilege of having

your

bills ready, but again, if I pass through the southern regions of Scotland, prepaid meters are increasing by two per cent and the biggest increase of all is For people in the south of England who pay and receive bills an increase of almost four per cent in January and then in April everyone will receive the average increase of 20, the energy price guarantee limits the unit

cost

, so, how are prices rising below that limit now?

I must warn in advance that this is complicated. I will do my job. It's best to explain it well right before you say if it's complicated for you to explain how the hell the rest of us are supposed to understand it well, that's why I started with what's happening before the why, hopefully you'll understand the why, so we have the energy price guarantee that has been in place since October replaced the price caps and what that means and people will find this amazing. The expensive prices we are paying now are subsidized by the government. Without that subsidy, we would be at the maximum price in October. so in typical use the guaranteed energy price is 2500 without which it would be 3530 a year, in January the maximum price increases even more it reaches 4,200 pounds a year but again what it really means is that the government subsidy is higher, but because the way the subsidy works is a Pence discount from the unit rate and because the regulator recalculates the maximum price every three months and they make slight adjustments by region and slight adjustments in the relationship between the advance payment of the direct debit and payment. upon receipt of invoices, since the price guarantees only a fixed discount, what the regulator does with its adjustments has an impact on the actual prices we pay and recalibrates regional prices, recalibrates payment upon receipt of invoices, recalibrates prepayment for that there are winners and there are losers and the losers this time are the users of prepaid meters and the payment and receipt of bills.

Now the problem for me is that if you are on prepayment, not everyone on prepayment is low income, but almost everyone on low income is on prepayment. meters the vast majority of the poorest in the country have prepaid meters so seeing an increase in the peak usage period of the year when we have an energy price guarantee doesn't seem right, not now, we looked at these numbers last night. I said I was doing it while watching football and last night at the same time I wrote to senior officials in the business department asking them to look again at whether we really want to increase prepaid meters at this time of year.

I'm waiting for a response although I know my message has been received and if I receive anything, even if I'm not on the program, I will contact the program and come talk to you about it, but some people will see a slight drop, but some people will see a four percent increase, some will see a four percent increase in January, and then everyone from April onwards will see it because of the energy price guarantee we announced in the fall. The statement increases by 20, taking a typical direct debit bill to three thousand pounds starting a year starting in April.

I hope that made sense. It's a little bit complicated. It makes sense technically. But. I hope I have explained it.

good

enough for you to understand but it just doesn't make sense when everyone is struggling does it just to pay the energy bills it just doesn't make sense Susan on Facebook I'm on a pay as you go meter I haven't got my October vouchers o November British Gas please help me so I have also been investigating with my team. We've been surveying people about this. At the moment I only have provisional results to try to determine which companies tend to be worse. or not, the actual statistics of the percentage who did not receive the vouchers are not relevant because it is a self-selecting survey, but it is interesting that the highest percentage of responses who said they had not received the vouchers came from British gas customers, followed by SSE and then Scottish Power now look, it shouldn't be happening, this is the lifesaver, the first thing you need to do is check they have the correct contact details, check they have the correct phone number, the correct email address, the correct postal address, because if not they are not sending it to the wrong place, so you should check that

your

information is up to date and in case they have sent you an email, check the Spam box in your email to verify that it is not is.

I don't have an email from them there, be very careful, but they are not scams. You should not click on a link. There should be information on how to claim. If you don't already have it, you should file a formal complaint. to the company, the problem I have with saying that is that I almost feel frustrated giving that information because a lot of people also tell me I can't get through and they don't respond. You should make this as a grievance if your grievance is Unresolved you could take it to the Energy Ombudsman. The Work and Pensions Secretary for this program said go to the Ombudsman.

Yes, but the Ombudsman is taking too long. I mean, you won't get to the Ombudsman. You will not get a response from the Ombudsman. for weeks and weeks and we need this removed. I mean, again, I'll try to contact the business department. I will also do my best to try and speak to someone from British. I know I'm talking to someone. in the final year of British Gas in the next few days, if I'm honest, I'm trying. I shouldn't say that, but I know I will and I'll make statements about this, but I also do it with the things I have. suggested that everyone who pays an electricity bill is entitled to the £66 a month if they are activated and what we are talking about here is key and card meters, not smart prepaid meters, key and card meters, you should get a coupon if you have You didn't have your coupon for October and November, that's a problem.

Make sure you have the correct information and then contact the company. This is not

good

enough and I hope we don't have a government minister today, but actually I think that if I can't force this to happen, I think this is something that the government should commit to because in their rules, they I will read, the government says that suppliers must make all reasonable efforts to ensure you get your discount looking at the statistics I have I don't think they are in a reasonable position at the moment we don't have a government minister we have the people's champion, I think it's their job, not mine, for them to do well and you're the person who goes straight to government ministers and tells them to sort this out and we're very grateful that they do.

Laura on Twitter just received my new direct debit via the right. Breath deeply. £850 for a reasonably sized three bed semi with four of us. On this notice, they have estimated my usage at more than double what they had estimated on the last bill, but they will not reduce it, what can I do? I think there is a systematic problem with direct debits at the moment, partly because many people are cutting back on their energy consumption, but the assumption is that this is not the case and everyone's direct debit should have risen correctly because prices have risen.

The big question, I'm assuming you're giving them meter readings or you're on a smart meter, if not, do that before you start addressing anything else on your direct debit. I guess he has credit. That's just to tell everyone this time of year you'd like to be. credit, you would like to have approximately two months of direct debits on credit because we are entering the high usage period. You should have built up your credit stock in the low usage period and now we are entering the high usage period. period in which you are going to use it, so having credit is a good thing at the moment and you want to have credit, but if you have credit substantially, your direct debit will increase and you don't relate it to your user usage.

Firstly, I would go online and there are several direct debit calculators that show you what your direct debit should be based on last year's usage. Independent energy company calculators now if they tell you your direct debit should be £450 a month and it's £800 a month politely take it to the energy company it's not the call center operators fault and say you need and under the conditions of their license, they must do this. I think I'm only using a month's worth of £450. of energy based on current prices um and I have calculated my usage for last year to find that there is no reason for you to charge me £800 as I have credit and I am doing my meter readings now if I approach them with that evidence After using a proper calculator, we are getting a lot of success.

You might go to that calculator and say your direct debit should be £800. I'm afraid £800 a month no longer surprises me. You know, it's triple, it's a triple average usage and the triple average usage is high and that's what's interesting is that they keep quoting us this average usage, but I mean a family of four in a three-bedroom semi sounds like a family. Pretty average, yes, but look there. There are so many things that I had a woman on my program who used very high usage and I contacted National Energy Action, a charity, and there were appliances that were on all the time that shouldn't have been appliances that she didn't know about. how to operate and people can make mistakes in their energy use so I can't give you a general statement but the best thing you can do with your direct debit is put it into one of those online calculators, calmly see what it should say , take that and Tell me, can you justify why when I am at the current price limit using £450 a year you are asking me for £800 a year when I have credit and unless there is a reason that is being overlooked then you have right to request it? that needs to be reduced and people are getting successes based on that and if it's not necessary then you need to make a formal complaint and go to the energy ombudsman.