Northern Ireland energy and the cost of living
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the past week energy companies in Northern Ireland have announced increases in the price of electricity and gas. It comes as people in Northern Ireland wait to hear the details of exactly when they will receive the £400 off their electricity bills from the UK government and when and how the Energy Price Guarantee will apply there. The UK government has said the Guarantee will provide equivalent financial support to those in Northern Ireland as the rest of the UK some time in November, but it will be backdated to 1st October. We'll hear from people in Banbridge in County Down and from Peter McClenaghan at the Consumer Council of Northern Ireland.
Sixty thousand people who had tax rebates claimed on their behalf by a company will have their money paid back to them, in full, directly by His Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It comes after an investigation by this programme. Dan Whitworth will have more on this.
Forty thousand people who had funeral plan policies with a company called Safe Hands Plans Ltd which went into administration are now being offered new deals to take up a plan elsewhere. We'll explore what those are and what it means for those affected.
Plus, how to avoid energy bill scams and how to talk to children about the cost of living crisis? We'll speak to Ricky Boleto, presenter on CBBC Newsround.
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researcher: Sandra Hardial Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast 12pm, Saturday 8th October 2022)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation. |
| 0:07.0 | It was an extraordinary news story. |
| 0:09.0 | The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny, |
| 0:14.0 | mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared. |
| 0:18.0 | One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for |
| 0:21.7 | Lucan. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. I'm Alex Fontunzelman. This is |
| 0:27.8 | the Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast. After a Moneybox investigation, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast. |
| 0:39.4 | After a Moneybox investigation, 60,000 people who had tax rebates claimed for them by a commercial company |
| 0:45.5 | will have the money paid to them directly and in full by HMRC. |
| 0:50.4 | More on that with Dan Whitworth later. |
| 0:53.2 | 45,000 customers of the funeral planning firm Safe Hands, which has gone bust, will have to pay up to £2,000 or more to buy the funeral they had already paid for. |
| 1:04.3 | How to avoid energy bill scams and how do you talk to children about the cost of living crisis? |
| 1:10.2 | But first, in the past week, |
| 1:12.3 | energy companies in Northern Ireland have announced big increases in the price of electricity and gas. |
| 1:18.1 | Electricity prices are up by about a third. Gas is more than half as much again for some customers. |
| 1:24.1 | The unit rates now being charged for electricity and gas are higher, sometimes much higher, than the price in the rest of the UK. |
| 1:30.3 | Well, this bleak news comes while people in Northern Ireland wait to hear exactly when they will receive the £400 off their electricity bills, |
| 1:38.3 | which was promised by the UK government, and when and how the energy price controls which began this month in the rest of the UK will apply. |
| 1:47.0 | The government has said it will provide equivalent financial support to households in Northern Ireland sometime in November and backdated to October the 1st. |
| 1:56.0 | Well our reporter Emma Devlin spoke to people in Bambridge in County Down about energy costs this week. |
| 2:02.6 | It's scandalous, really. It's so difficult. There are those that can afford the rises, |
| 2:08.9 | and there are those that really can't. It's going to be hard to watch families that are going under. |
... |
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