British Gas will strengthen its customer service team to cope with the sharp rise in the number of troubled customers struggling to cope with growing bills, as owner Centrica predicts annual profits will exceed expectations.
The company will hire another 500 people for calls from a growing number of people facing higher energy bills at a time when the broader cost of living is outpacing wage growth, putting pressure on household budgets.
A Centrica spokesman said the demand for customer service had been “phenomenal” over the past year. “We are hiring additional staff to manage this demand,” they said. “Customers are very concerned about rising energy costs and we want to help them as much as we can.”
The average dual-fuel tariff for households jumped to just under £ 2,000 a year on April 1, when the UK’s energy regulator raised the price cap by 54% to reflect incredible wholesale gas prices. The bills are ready to increase at the next review of the energy price cap in October.
Centrica said in a commercial statement on Tuesday that it expects operating profits for 2022 to come at the top of City’s forecasts, which range from £ 739 million to £ 1.4 billion.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to help low-income households, and calls for an unforeseen tax on energy producers such as BP and Shell have intensified as they made billions in higher oil profits. and gas prices.
Centrica has also increased British Gas’s energy support fund, set up in December, which has tripled to £ 6 million since then. It provides grants of up to £ 750 to help vulnerable customers pay their energy bills.
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The fund has paid £ 1.9 million to 3,600 clients so far, equivalent to an average grant of £ 534. Another £ 1.6 million grant is forthcoming.
Centrica will create another 1,000 engineering apprenticeships after 500 were created last year to take over 3,500 over the next decade.
It says the supply chain disruption, with global supply delays in some parts and higher inflation, is affecting the British Gas Services division. However, the British nuclear and gas business is doing well and the company has secured more gas supplies from Norway and renewable energy – mainly wind and solar – from across Europe and the UK.
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