A PENSIONER was left horrified after being forced to raid his own funeral fund to pay off a £1200 British Gas bill.
Widower Barry Seckerson last week rung up the energy giant to work out how much he owed since December.
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But to his horror he discovered his winter fuel bill had quadrupled from £266 by over £900.
The 82-year-old told The Mirror: “I gave the agent my meter reading, and she said it was £1,117.80.
“I can pay this bill but I will have to use some of the money I have in savings.
“It is money I put aside to cover the cost of my funeral.”
Barry, who lives alone with his cat in Stoke-on-Trent, suffers from a debilitating heart condition.
Coupled with angina, which is chest pain, the former construction worker has to keep the heating on in cold snaps.
Long-suffering Barry, whose wife Brenda died 10-years-ago, was only expecting his bill to be £400, or £500 at a push.
His estimation was off the back of a £266 bill he paid in the three months up to December.
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To add insult to injury, Barry has been a loyal British Gas customer for more than 50 years.
He’s got until February 20 to cough up the cash or faces a fine.
It comes as British Gas owner Centrica recorded record profits amid a year of soaring energy prices.
Profits tripled to £3.3billion as millions of Brits suffered crippling energy bills..
It comes as families face £3,000-a-year bills from April.
The monster takings follow the scandal that British Gas agents were forcibly installing pre-pay meters.
A British Gas spokesperson said: “Mr Seckerson came to the end of a fixed tariff in April 2022 and went onto a standard tariff.
“His prices are now capped by the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee.
“We will be seeing if there is any further help we can provide him with such as a grant towards his energy costs.”
