A study has revealed that the average Brit during their lifetime will spend an incredible £686,000 on household bills.
The survey, commissioned by Compare the Market, asked 2,000 British bill payers what they spend each year on energy, water, the mortgage, rent, insurance and loans.
They found that the average household spends £11,379 every year which amounts to £686,125 over the average adult lifetime per person.
An astonishing £57,982 of this is spent on energy with entertainment and communication, including TV packages and phone contracts, also costing a whopping £48,800.
Damn you Netflix!!!
A spokesman for Compare the Market said:
Bills account for a large amount of our outgoings, and yet a number of Brits don’t even know what they’re paying for.
Whether it is their energy bills or another supplier, some people even confess to not reading bills as a result of the complexity of understanding them.
Insurance creates a dent of £52,106 during a lifetime, with car insurance costing the most, averaging at £16,187.
Of course it is council tax though that costs the most totally a eye-watering £85,450.
With payments coming in at an average £118 a month, this really is hardly surprising.
A further £66,144 goes towards loan repayments which creates its own vicious circle.
That’s because a quarter of Brits use credit cards and loans in order to help pay the bills but then we end up having to pay off these later in life.
Around 14 per cent of us also admitted to turning to parents for financial support when needs be.
As the spokesman said, bills really are confusing so it is no surprise that a third of us are unaware of what their electricity bill covers and that a sixth of us won’t even bother to read their statements due to their complex nature.
The survey also found that one in six adults believe that bills are harder to understand today than in previous years and that half of Britons would back an appeal for energy suppliers to make their bills simpler and easier to understand.
Furthermore, nearly two thirds of those surveyed would like to see all household bills simplified.
Because of these results, Compare The Market have decided to start a petition online that is asking suppliers to ‘make bills easy to understand and fit for purpose’.
Backed by John Penrose, the MP for Weston, Worle and The Villages, the petition is addressed to The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets which is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Britain.
Penrose said:
I am supporting this petition with Compare the Market as I believe that energy bills need to be simplified.
There are millions of individuals and families across the UK left at a loose end when trying to decipher their energy bills. This is the first step to a more transparent energy industry.
Once we have tackled this, it will give both families and individuals alike the sovereignty to make informed decisions when both changing energy supplier or querying their bills.
To find out more about the petition, or to sign it, click here.
