British Gas quotes man £13,000 a year for his electric

David Hordon, 67, had been paying £147 each month for gas and electric from his home he bought in Warwick Road, Boscombe, earlier this year. 

However, the retired music teacher from London received an email from British Gas quoting him an estimated annual tariff of £13,268 – the equivalent of £36 a day.

He said: “Last week I received an email from them informing me there was a change to my tariff from January 1.

David said it is utterly ridiculous (Image: Daily Echo)

“The gas was expected to be £795.74 but the annual rate for electricity was £12,472 which I knew was ridiculous so I rang them up. 

“I spoke with them on the phone and the manager, who must’ve overheard the conversation, stepped in and I spent about half an hour on the phone to him. 

“I told him how monumental that figure was and that I was single, living on my own and on a pension and that I simply cannot afford it. 

Warwick Road in Boscombe (Image: Daily Echo)

“He then said he can put me on another tariff that would bring it down to around £10,000. Even if it was that, it would take away my pension so how would I eat, cook, pay for anything?” 

David said he is already doing as much as he can to cut down his electricity usage including switching lights off when not in use, boiling the kettle less, and using the microwave more often than his electric cooker. 

David, who moved from London to Bournemouth earlier this year in February, said he was worried the impending new tariff will still be unaffordable. 

British Gas

“There must be other OAPs in this situation who are absolutely petrified and don’t know what to do,” he said. 

“if this is happening to me it must be happening to other people. I’m not hopeful it will be corrected, I utterly expect it. I do not use £13,000 worth of electricity.” 

He said he fears he will have to sell his home if he cannot pay the new tariff from his only income which is his pension of around £8,500 a year. 

A spokesman for British Gas said: “This is clearly an error and we’ve contacted Mr Hordon to apologise and offer a gesture of goodwill.

"We recently replaced his meters and unfortunately, we entered information incorrectly in relation to his annual energy usage projection when recording the new meter details.

"What Mr Hordon received was not a bill or a tariff quote, and we’ve reassured him that his direct debits haven’t changed. ”