Full house – SSE completes round of big six suppliers pricing up to new price cap level
SSE announces 10% price rise for 2.1 million customers on its standard variable tariff
The £116 hike means SSE’s standard plan will cost £1,253 on average – adding £248 million to bills across the country
Prepayment meter customers will also face a £106 (9%) price rise
11 million customers have now had a £1.3 billion price rise confirmed for 1 April
Uswitch urges customers to take action by switching and saving up to £324.
Richard Neudegg, Head of Regulation at Uswitch.com, said: “One of the many risks with the energy price cap was that it would encourage suppliers to price default plans up to it – and with SSE’s announcement today, every one of the Big Six energy companies has done just that.
“Over half the energy customers in Britain are on poor value standard tariffs. Sanctioned by the regulator Ofgem, the Big Six will add £1.3 billion to the bills of 11 million households come 1 April. They’ve also raised prices to the maximum allowed for prepayment customers. That’s potentially another £380 million on bills, if all energy companies increase standard tariffs to the prepayment cap.
“Energy customers should be under no illusion that these standard tariffs represent a good price for energy. We could be looking at a total price rise of almost £1.7 billion – one of the biggest hikes on one day in nearly a decade.
“But these price rises aren’t compulsory. Consumers need to know that they can switch, quickly and easily, and make savings of up to £324. Choosing a fixed deal also protects people from unexpected bill hikes and the confusion of twice yearly price changes under the cap.”
Find out how you could save over £1,000 a year with Uswitch here.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Ailene Barr
Phone: 020 3872 5610
Email: ailene.barr@uswitch.com
Twitter: @uswitchPR
Notes to editors
Source: Uswitch.com
Source: Ofgem - number of non-price protected domestic customer accounts, July 2018
SSE had 2,144,726 customers as of July 2018 x £116 = £248,788,216
Total standard variable customers with British Gas, E.ON, EDF, npower, ScottishPower and SSE in July 2018 = 11,126,901. Customer numbers are then multiplied by the price rise for each supplier = £1,308,883,545
Cheapest deal as of 20 February 2019 is £930. £1,254 (price cap level) - £930 = £324
Ofgem estimates that 90% (3.6 million) of the 4 million prepayment customers in Britain are on tariffs priced close to the PPM cap (4 State of the Energy Market report 2018). If those 3.6 million customers all see their PPM tariff increase to the level of the new PPM cap, the total increase is 3.6 million x £106 = £381,600,000.
£1,308,883,545 standard credit increase + £381,600,000 potential PPM increase = £1,690,483,545 potential total increase. The largest energy price increase in a single day in the last ten years was 18 August 2011 when British Gas increased prices by an average of £190 for 9 million customers, an increase of £1.17 billion in total.
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