Martin Lewis urges state pensioners to act quickly and avoid £149 charge

State pensioners can get £149 off their energy bills if they lock in and fix at a cheaper rate, amid a new £1717 price cap from Ofgem - and £149 increase.

Martin Lewis has urged state pensioners to act quickly to avoid a £149 charge. State pensioners can get £149 off their energy bills if they lock in and fix at a cheaper rate, amid a new £1717 price cap from Ofgem - and £149 increase.

There are fixed energy deals now which will effectively wipe out the price cap. BBC Sounds and ITV star Mr Lewis explained: "There is a way to beat the rise but in order to do that you need to understand what's happening.

"Now unless you already know you're on a fix you're almost certainly on a standard tariff. It's well over 80 per cent of homes so it's almost certainly the majority of people watching will be on one of those tariffs. For every £100 you pay on energy right now, from next Tuesday you are going to pay £110 for the same usage.

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"That is what a 10 percent rise means." Martin added: "Outfox The Market is the cheapest fix right now. It is 9.4 percent cheaper than the October price cap on average and 0.8 percent cheaper than what you pay. So it drops a tiny bit now but from next Tuesday you save a lot.

"EDF has a tariff which says you can fix now at the current rate. So you simply just don't get that price rise. That's it you just stop the price rise." He went on to say: "I would say for the vast majority of people who are risk averse and don't want to see prices going up, fixing now is the safe option."

"But those questions say 'my company has offered me should i fix?'" he asked. He added: "This is not about getting a fix, this is about getting a cheap fix. If you're gonna lock in a price, you want to lock in the cheapest you can get."