Baffling bills leave skint Brits out of pocket

Recent research has revealed that British adults are potentially being left out of pocket, after 75% of those surveyed revealed they have no idea if they are being ripped off by service providers, due to jargon heavy, complicated language used in their bills. This means most customers cannot work out if there has been a mistake in calculating their monthly charges.

It has been estimated that, consequently, families have been overcharged by £6.7billion in the last year alone by energy companies, the biggest culprits when it comes to baffling bills. 86% of families thought their energy bills were too complex, and because of the difficulty in understanding them, it is proving impossible to work out whether what they have been charged is correctly aligned to their usage.

Thousands of pounds a year is spent by families on household bills, and with rising costs of energy and stagnant wages, money has to work harder than ever. It is therefore imperative for customers to be sure they are paying fairly for their household services, something that is currently difficult due to the way usage is reported.

Energy bills, food and rent/mortgage top the list if most expensive costs of living, with gas and electricity bills costing on average £1250 a year. This is a huge increase to that what was paid five to ten years ago.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, is said to be planning regulations that will come into effect to radically simplify energy bills, making it easier for customers to check their usage and make sure they are paying fairly for what they have used. This is aligned with recent regulations that have seen energy providers have to automatically put their customers on the cheapest tariff for their usage habits.