A NEW mum whose energy bills shot up to £6,000 a year has described the increase as “insane”.
Irsi Hyka, who lives in a tiny city centre flat, used to pay £300 every quarter – but she has been billed almost £3,000 for the last six months.
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The 24-year-old, who shares her Birmingham home with her partner and their two-month-old, complained to SSE Energy Services but was told the figures were based on “estimated readings”.
Irsi, who is on maternity pay, says she felt compelled to cough up but then feared she would be unable to afford the next bill.
She told BirminghamLive: “It is so frustrating.
“This is a stressful situation but they couldn’t do anything to help me.”
Irsi’s first hiked quarterly energy bill was for £1,119.64 – a 275 per cent increase.
“This was insane”, she said.
“It was the summer when I wasn’t at home most of the time, and my apartment is so small.”
The mum-of-one asked her supplier to check her meter was recording correctly, but she claims no one ever visited as they were “extremely busy”.
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Weeks later, a worried Irsi received a “final notice before court action” letter and a £100 late payment fine – so she paid up.
But to her astonishment, she was then billed £1,790.84 for the next three months.
“Is this a joke?,” Irsi said.
“I tried to to call them so many times but no one could help me.”
SSE Energy Service said the charges were based on “estimated readings” calculated from five digits, when Irsi’s account was set up to receive only four digits.
This meant they were being “manually changed” based on readings from 2019, but this wasn’t picked up due to a “shortfall in service”.
A spokesperson confirmed her account has now been updated and Irsi will be refunded what she is due, as well as given £50 as a gesture of goodwill.
They added: “We’re very sorry to Ms Hyka for the time taken to resolve this case.”
Millions of households are being clobbered with eye-wateringly high energy bills this year.
The energy price cap, which came into effect on April 1, took the average household bill to £1,971 a year.
But experts have warned this could rise to £2,800 come October.
The government announced several emergency support measures to help Brits pay for the increase.
Help is available from a range of organisations, including suppliers, charities, the government and local councils.
