An elderly widower is being forced to raid his own funeral fund to pay a big British Gas bill - as the firm’s owner revealed record profits of more than £100 a second.
Barry Seckerson, 82, says he has no choice than to use emergency savings after his winter gas bill more than quadrupled.
Yet while the pensioner resorts to using money for his own send off, energy giant Centrica yesterday unveiled that annual profits had more than tripled to £3.3billion.
The gigantic sum - equivalent to almost £6,300 a minute or £104 a second - was fuelled by rocketing wholesale energy prices after Russia ’s invasion in Ukraine and a surge in energy bills for ordinary households.
Centrica boss Chris O’Shea sparked further anger by refusing to rule out taking an annual bonus of up to £1.6million.
The fat cat could net a separate £1.4millon bonus on top of his near £800,000 salary.
Yet while he coins it in, customers like Mr Seckerson are left struggling to afford his firm’s sky-high energy bills.
The retired construction worker, from Stoke-on-Trent, a loyal customer of British Gas for more than 50 years, suffers from a heart condition and angina which means he has to have the heating on during cold snaps.
He recently rang British Gas to ask what his gas bill was from the start of December.
“I gave the agent my meter reading, and she said it was £1,171,” explained Mr Seckerson, who lives alone with his pet cat after wife Brenda died 10 years ago.
“I have arthritis and angina so have to keep the heating on over Christmas.”
“Because it was winter I was expecting it to be £400 maybe £500, but never that much.”
The £1,171 bill is over £900 more than the £266 for the previous three months, and three times what he paid a year ago.
“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.”
Mr Seckerson said he was now dreading April, when energy bills are set to jump again after the Tories scale back universal support.
He branded Centrica’s profits “disgusting” and a “scandal.”
And Mr Seckerson criticised Mr O’Shea’s possible bonus, saying: “I don’ know he would have the cheek to take it.
“My bill is part of what is paying for it.”
Fife-born Mr O’Shea, who waived a £1.1million bonus a year ago, claimed yesterday it was “too early to have a conversation” about the latest one.
It will be revealed in Centrica’s annual report, due next month.
Defending its bumper earnings, Mr O’Shea, 49, said: “Profits at Centrica have a purpose, and that purpose is net zero, that purpose is helping customers having lower bills going forward.”
Most of the money it made came from Centrica’s gas production, its stake in nuclear power plants and its energy trading arms.
Annual profits at British Gas Energy, its supply arm for 7.5 million households, dropped 39% to £72million.
British Gas is still reeling from revelations about debt agents working on its behalf forcing their way into the homes of vulnerable customers with a court warrant to install prepayment meters.
All suppliers have been ordered by watchdog Ofgem to halt the installations of pay-as-you-go meters using court warrants until the end of the winter.
Centrica rewarded investors by announcing £723million worth of dividends and share buybacks - including a new £300million boost.
That was 10 times the £75million British Gas spent “supporting” customers last year.
The firm said it made £8 per British Gas customer post-tax.
Centrica argued that investors included 500,000 small shareholders, and that the majority of dividends to institutional investors were paid directly or indirectly to UK pension funds.
It also pointed to £1billion in tax it paid last year.
The firm is the latest energy giant to announce record profits.
The West’s five biggest oil producers - including BP and Shell - have unveiled combined profits of £160billion in recent weeks.
Ed Miliband, Labour’s Shadow Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary, said: “It cannot be right that, as oil and gas giants rake in the windfalls of war, Rishi Sunak ’s Conservatives refuse to implement a proper windfall tax that would make them pay their fair share.
“In a matter of weeks, the Government plans to allow the energy price cap to rise to £3,000.
“Labour would use a proper windfall tax to stop prices going up in April.”
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Britain’s energy market is broken.
“While millions of families struggle to heat their homes, firms like Centrica are raking in monster profits.
“It is time to bring energy retail companies into public ownership.”
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said Centrica’s profits were “built on the backs of young families, older people and the disabled living in cold damp homes.”
Tom Marsland, policy manager at disability equality charity Scope, said: “It’s obscene that energy companies continue to make massive profits as disabled people face devastating situations because they can’t afford enough energy.”
Chris Hayes, from the Common Wealth think tank said Mr O’Shea’s bonus “would not be justified at all” on moral as well as other grounds.
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 and will be seeing if there is any further help we can provide him with such as a grant towards his energy costs.”
