It’s not the news you wanted to hear but the energy price cap is going up once again from October.
That means your energy bills are likely to get more expensive, as the cap of £1,568 that had been in place between 1 July and 30 September is going up to £1,717 from 1 October to the end of the year, an increase of about 10 percent.
Just to refresh your memory, the energy price cap refers to the maximum amount providers can charge for each unit of electricity and gas, so the costs are a guide for them and not you.
Those figures don’t mean you can’t pay more than that for energy, it’s what a ‘typical’ UK household on a direct debit would pay for electricity and gas in a year.
Anyhow, the cap is going up so that means you’ll almost certainly be paying more in your energy bills.
Prices are going up… again. (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
In comes the champion of your bank balance, Martin Lewis himself, who has talked about the things you need to be on the lookout for and things you might be able to do.
He recently posted a lengthy video on Twitter detailing his thoughts, and his Money Saving Expert site has put out a lot of useful information for you.
During his video he spoke about the ‘moral hazard’ of the energy price standing charge, the amount of money you pay just to be able to access your gas and electricity.
Lewis explained that you’d be paying 60.99p per day for electricity and 31.66p per day regardless of how much you used, with the expert calling this ‘a poll tax on energy bills’.
“You’re going to pay £334-odd a year just for the facility of having gas and electricity meters, even if you don’t use them.
“Many people don’t use gas in summer, but pay 32p a day just for that facility.”
Martin Lewis called standing charges a ‘moral hazard’ and gave some advice on how to soften the price rises. (Twitter/@MartinSLewis)
With the cap rise that figure is going to rise to about £338 a year, and Lewis warned it ‘penalises lower users, often many who are vulnerable, and means they will face a proportionately larger rise’.
You can cut your energy consumption as much as you like but this payment is still going to be coming out of your pocket.
Elsewhere, he advised people on how to deal with the cap rise of around 10 percent, with his site saying customers might want to get a fixed rate now to insulate themselves against future price rises.
Major energy providers like OVO, British Gas, E.on and Octopus Energy have fixed rates which are slightly higher than the current cap but will be lower than the one that comes in for October.
In essence you’d be putting your prices up a bit more now to avoid them going up by even more later on.
Lewis said it was ‘safer to get it sorted now’ and shop around for a better deal than sit back and wait for the rise that’d come with the price cap increase.
