Martin Lewis issues energy meter reading warning as he slams Ofgem ‘mistake’
Martin Lewis urges energy users to take a meter reading
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis urged Good Morning Britain viewers to take an energy meter reading this week ahead of the price cap change as bills are due to marginally drop – but not by as much as previously thought.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain earlier, Mr Lewis said: “It’s worth digging under those numbers to see what’s really going on. We’re actually going to see the standing charge, that poll tax that we all pay just for having the facility of gas and electricity, going up by around one percent.
“A complete mistake by Ofgem, the regulator. It should not be doing this.
“I don’t understand why it wants to do this. It’s incredibly unpopular and I think it is a real moral hazard to charge the lowest users such a great fee for using energy. But it’s doing that. I will continue to campaign against it.”
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According to Mr Lewis, the price of electricity will drop by roughly nine percent and the price of gas will drop by roughly eight percent in accordance with Ofgem’s new October price cap.
Mr Lewis said: “All in all, the average is seven percent. So that means for every £100 you pay now, on average, you’ll pay £93 from Sunday.
“But it’s worth noting lower users get less of a drop, higher users get more of a drop because of the way they’ve structured it by putting standing charges up and putting unit charges down.”
However, Mr Lewis urged: “Because prices are changing, I call this meter reading week and that means if you are on if you pay by monthly direct debit and you don’t have a working smart meter, you should be doing a meter reading sometime during the next week.”
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Explaining how to take the reading, Mr Lewis said: “Go to your meter, take a quick picture of it. That’s the easiest way and put it in.
“With prices changing on Sunday, what we want to do is reduce any error where the energy firms assume more of your usage is at the current high rates rather than after Sunday’s lower rates.”
Mr Lewis said it doesn’t matter which day this is carried out – people can always “backdate” their reading.
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Issuing one final and “important” tip, Mr Lewis said: “For anyone going to do this slowly on a non-smart electricity pre-payment meter specifically. Those meters change the price you pay on the day that you top up.
“So if I had one of those, what I’d be doing is trying not to top up this week unless you really need to, in which case just top up, top up what you’ll use this week and then go and top up on Sunday.
“Because by topping up on Sunday, that’s what tells your meter you should be charging a new lower price. So even if you don’t need any extra energy on Sunday, go and top up your electricity on Sunday just by a quid so that your meter knows to charge you less.”
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