Over the weekend we beat our quarter of a million target, and now we have almost 300,000 signatures. So many people see how we are being ripped off by the energy giants and we need a change! Now, it’s time to start turning that signature support into action – can you pitch in? Let’s win Energy for All!
The news on prices just gets worse and worse. A few weeks ago experts were talking about average bills of £3,000 come October. Now it is likely to be even more, as a result of the appalling war in the Ukraine. Yet government proposals are a total insult – like £200 a year which we are expected to pay back through our bills in the future. How, exactly, do they expect us to be able to do that?
We are asking you to take action to win the first step towards Energy for All.
Fuel Poverty Action is launching a letter writing campaign to Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearly, the big boss at the energy regulator, to demand action on a grotesque injustice, which was just brought to our attention.
So far 40 energy suppliers have gone bust. Did you realise that Ofgem have loaded all the costs of failing energy suppliers not just onto our bills, but onto the standing charge element of our bills, the part that no one can avoid no matter how much we cut down our usage?
This policy will have the biggest impact on the people who can least afford it. Why should people who are already rationing heating end up paying for the bad decision making of energy retailers, the government and Ofgem itself?!
The standing charge may be a small amount for those who can afford to be profligate with their energy, but for many households it is a huge part of the bill. Between gas and electricity it is due to rise this April to around £300 a year.
We believe Ofgem can be made to back down on this policy, if you help drive the point home. This would be a first step towards Energy For All, reversing the lethal situation where people with least pay most.
It takes less than two minutes to send a letter. Click here and follow the steps. Make sure to share with your friends and family.
FPA have written to Ofgem about this and another injustice: you pay more for energy if you have a prepayment meter, despite the fact you are paying in advance. And prepayment meters are being imposed on people in debt! Other countries do not even have these meters, which have become a way of cutting people off supply and then saying we have ‘disconnected ourselves’.
If even 10% of the people who signed the petition fire off this letter to Ofgem, they will get thirty thousands of letters. Send a letter here.
In the meantime, we will continue piling the pressure on through the media. We have been doing a lot of that recently, and there will be even more opportunities as we move towards the actual price increase on 1 April. We are always looking for people who are angry enough to be ready to speak out about their own situation. If that’s you please get in touch as soon as you can. Please email us at: fuelpovertyaction@gmail.com with “Speak Out” in the subject line.
If you’d like to be let know about coming events, please let us know by signing up to our newsletter here.
And make sure you get your own T-shirt for the event! They’re sustainable, powered by renewables, and plastic-free – Teemills wrote to FPA and offered to help with this. Your order can help build momentum, and also gives FPA some badly needed resources: all proceeds above costs go to FPA.
Let’s win energy for all, and let’s start by ending the unfair standing charge and prepayment meter mandates!
Diane