Energy prices: Thousands in NI buy top-ups before costs rise

About 200 people gathered outside Belfast City Hall to protest about the rising cost of living

Tens of thousands of people in Northern Ireland rushed to purchase energy top-ups before big prices rises kicked in.

Substantial increases in the cost of electricity and gas from some suppliers came into effect on Saturday.

SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland and Click Ireland all put their electricity price up by about a third, while gas from SSE Airtricity went up by 28%.

PayPoint, which operates the top-up card system, described the rush for top-ups on Friday as "unprecedented".

It said one retailer in Northern Ireland processed 45,000 energy top-ups on Friday - it usually does about 5,000.

Some retailers struggled as they hit their daily quota of energy sales - that was despite sales limits being quadrupled in recent weeks.

PayPoint said the fact that some shops could not sell top-ups was not due to a technical issue.

Meter reading problems

Many householders who pay for their energy through a monthly or quarterly billing system tried to submit their meter reading to their supplier on Friday.

But some SSE Airtricity customers reported issues submitting their readings online.

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The energy company said it was aware of a technical issue affecting its website and the SSE Airtricity app.

It added that customers can submit a meter reading to [e-mail] and "readings received by midday on 2 October will be honoured at the pre-price change rate".

Customers can also call 0345 601 9093 to leave a meter reading if they have their meter point reference number (MPRN).

Which bills are increasing?

Electricity

• Click Energy, 1 October, 28.2%

• SSE Airtricity, 1 October, 35.4%

• Electric Ireland, 1 October, 29%

• Budget Energy, 7 October, 32%

Gas

• SSE Airtricity, 1 October, 28.3%

• Firmus Energy Gas (Ten towns and Greater Belfast), 3 October, 56.3%

A crowd gathered at Belfast City Hall on Saturday to protest against the cost-of-living crisis, while smaller protests went ahead in other cities and towns.

The Belfast rally was organised by the Cost of Living Coalition and coincided with dozens of similar demonstrations across the UK.

Protesters in Belfast were calling for the government to do more to help with rising bills

Cailín McCaffery from the coalition said politicians at Westminster and at Stormont had to take more action.

"We can see daily how this is affecting people - the price of energy especially," she said.

"[Energy] companies are making billions yet... us at the bottom of the barrel are left trying to scrape the pennies together to pay for the electricity, pay for the gas, pay for oil - whatever it may be."

University student Hannah Pryor wants an immediate freeze on the cost of renting

She said energy bill discounts offered by the UK government would help a little but would not go far enough for lower-income families

Hannah Pryor, who is originally from Birmingham and studies at Queen's University Belfast, said she wanted to increase awareness of the difficulties many people were facing.

"The government don't seem to be doing that much," she said.

"A lot more can be done - we need rent freezes."