Star comment: British Gas customers freeze while boss roasts
For every single British Gas consumer who has been struggling to pay the above-inflation price rises in their energy bills, the news that the boss who has presided over this mass misery could be about to get a payoff in the millions is a slap in the face.
Golden goodbyes for the fat cats at the top of the industry, commerce and banking food chains are an obscene demonstration of the contempt in which consumers are held and make the political refrain that we are all in it together a sick joke.
It is them – the them being those at the top raking it in and wallowing in comfortable financial arrangements when they depart, enjoying amounts which would be lottery wins for anybody else – and us, the people watching the pennies in an age of austerity and trying to make ends meet.
Average British Gas bills have been pushed past £1,300 a year under the stewardship of Phil Bentley who will leave the organisation later this year.
His departure package looks likely to include things that might be expected, like a year's pay – it was £635,000 on the last available figures from 2011.
But it is also reported that various bonuses, shares, side-schemes and pension could take the potential package to £12.9 million.
What legacy has Mr Bentley left to gas consumers which could possibly be worth a £12.9 million reward?
The justification put forward for the constant rises in the price of gas is that the energy firms need to invest in infrastructure and secure the future of the energy supply.
In the next few days the temperature is expected to plummet. Heating will be turned up. Some impoverished folk will be rubbing their hands to keep warm.
They will not be celebrating the bumper payoff to Mr Bentley. It will, in more ways than one, leave them cold.