THE super-rich energy companies were yesterday accused by MPs of all parties of ‘ripping off’ the poorest people in the country who cannot afford to pay their considerable energy bills by direct debit.
The scope of the energy robbery scandal is revealed by Government figures that show that those paying by cash or cheque typically pay £114 a year more than those who make an automatic payment.
This situation has forced even cash and expenses rich MPs to protest on behalf of their constituents.
Up to 200 MPs have signed a House of Commons motion calling for an enquiry by the regulator, Ofgem.
Robert Halfon, a backbench Tory MP said that the additional payments that the poorest make to the super rich energy monopolies amount to a tax on some of the poorest in society.
He said: ‘Energy companies have been ripping the consumer off – have been fleecing the consumer – particularly the poor and pensioners, with their stealth tax for some time.’
He demanded a cap of £24 a year on charges, or £2 a month, similar to the amount charged by BT on phone and broadband bills.
The public anger is so great that even the Prime Minister, Cameron has had to simulate anger, and order officials to investigate whether those paying by cash or cheque were subsidising those who pay by direct debit.
Halfon said 17 out of 32 energy companies charge more for cash payments, and that 45% of the country has no alternative but to use the more expensive method to pay their bills.
The energy giants have come up with a novel explanation for their mugging of the poorest.
They say that they are imposing a cost on the pensioners and the poorest in order to pursue non-payers!
Further, Energy UK, which represents most of the energy suppliers in the UK, said it was unable to confirm the figure of £114 a year, which comes direct from the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
This mugging of the poor and the lowest paid is taking place at a time of massive food and transport cost inflation, while wages of millions have been frozen for four years now, and many benefits have been slashed or abolished.
On top of this the Tory led coalition is threatening to make even bigger financial attacks on the poor and on OAPs.
Works and Pensions Secretary, Duncan Smith is now advocating the slashing of winter fuel allowances for pensioners, the scrapping of their free transport on the buses and the tube, and imposing the payment onto them of the full TV license fee.
OAPs would lose up to £300 in cold weather payments and the over-75s would also have to fork out £145 for TV licences.
He revealed earlier this week: ‘We need maximum flexibility with the cap. Pretty much all existing ringfences will have to disappear.’
The future for the poor and the elderly especially, as well as the working class and the youth is one in which they will not even be able to decide ‘whether to eat or to heat’ – they will not be able to do either.
There is only one way forward in this situation for the entire working class and the middle class. This is that the energy companies must all be renationalised and put under workers management to make sure that the robbery of the poorest is ended.
Likewise, the Tory-led coalition must also be put an end to, to stop the forced return of the working class and the poor to the conditions of the 19th century.
The only way that this can be prevented is by the working class forcing the trade union leaders to call a general strike to bring down the Tory-led coalition and bring in a workers government and socialism.
Returning a Labour government that will carry on with the same policies as the Tories is no solution to the crisis.
Only a workers government that will carry out socialist policies to expropriate the bosses and the bankers and get rid of capitalism can guarantee the working class, the youth and the elderly a decent future.
