Elderly's cap 'slap' from British Gas

BRITISH Gas has announced a three-year price cap on energy bills for pensioners – but the offer isn‘t nearly as good as it sounds.

Although the cap will apply to any British Gas customers over the age of 60 who are on pension credit, it won‘t reverse the company‘s recent hefty price rises.

British Gas put up the cost of gas by 12.4% in August and electricity by 9.4%.

The new price 'cap' effectively locks in these increases for the elderly.

The company insisted that the 'harsh reality' was that wholesale energy prices had gone up and this had to be passed on to customers.

A spokeswoman defended the new 'price cap', adding: 'At least our customers will have the peace of mind that over the next three years their prices can‘t go up any further.'

The British Gas initiative is in conjunction with the Help the Aged and will include an insulation check. Qualifying customers who receive the pension credit could get up to £430 worth of free home insulation products.

Mike Lake, director general of Help the Aged said the initiative with British Gas would reassure older people who were worried about the rising cost of energy bills.

'We‘re naturally concerned about the impact of rising bills on older people and we welcome this joint approach to help those most in need.'

Fuel poverty is a major and growing issue in the UK, which has the highest proportion of excess winter deaths in the EU. An estimated 21,800 people died last winter from the cold and research by the Faculty of Public Health and the Met Office late last year suggested that a higher proportion of the UK's population dies every year as a result of the cold than in either Finland or Russia.

Another charity for the elderly, Age Concern, came in for flak earlier this year after it emerged that elderly people who bought their fuel from Powergen through the charity‘s energy service faced price increases 40% higher than ordinary Powergen customers.

Charity spokesman Mike Abrey-Bugg told This is Money that so far this autumn there has been no price increase for Age Concern customers who buy their fuel through the tie-up with Powergen.