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Price hike will leave pensioners shivering
SHIVERING pensioners will be forced to huddle together in communal rooms because of soaring energy costs. That the grim prediction from the Calderdale Pension-ers' Association following the decision by British Gas to pump up prices by 22 per cent from next month. Association president Jan-nette Parsons said alarm bells would be ringing in the homes of the elderly and low income families.
"People will be sitting in communal rooms so they can turn their heating off,'' she said.
"Those who don't have communal rooms or live in their own homes are going to have big problems. It's very alarming for pensioners,'' she said.
The huge rise will have a real impact from the start of next winter, said Mrs Parsons, 82, of Albion Court, Halifax.
And she feared other energy companies would be announcing big rises to close the gap on British Gas.
She said the association was happy to advise pensioners but older people were more unlikely to search out the best deals.
The elderly appreciated Government help with heating bills but many pensioners already struggled to pay, said Mrs Parsons.
"The association will be happy to find out the cheapest supplier for pensioners but there is no guarantee other suppliers won't catch up,'' she said.
It is the second time in six months that British Gas, owned by Centrica, has increased the price of gas and electricity, blaming higher costs on the wholesale markets.
USwitch.com, an impartial online comparison and switching service for energy and other products, estimates the average household bill will be 1,005, and said British Gas had raised prices by more than 66 per cent since the start of 2004.
Alan Tattersall, director of home services at uSwitch.com, urged British Gas customers to switch providers.
"This is one of the biggest social scandals in recent memory. It is misleading for British Gas to hide behind wholesale gas prices as the reason for these latest increases," he said.
"Even before this British Gas charged their customers on average 12.5 per cent more for gas than main competitors..''
British Gas spokesperson Mark Duffell said: "It's a big rise but it's driven by even bigger rises in wholesale gas. We've absorbed the vast majority of that as a company.
"The market's broken and it's pushing up wholesale prices in this country. All suppliers are in the same boat."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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