The cost of living crisis is now becoming real for many more of us

In the last few days it has become a concrete reality for millions of people who have received letters from our energy suppliers explaining just how much bills will go up by, writes Ben Chapman

‘Some high energy users are receiving statements informing them that their bills will rise by more than £1,000 a year’ (PA)

Until now, many people have been largely shielded from Britain's looming cost of living squeeze, which has remained in the realm of abstract concepts like energy price caps and consumer price inflation.

While Britain's poorest households - with little or no savings to call on - have already been hit hard by rising costs for food and other essentials, people on average or higher incomes have not yet felt truly the pinch.

That's all changing now. What was once a distant worry has, in the last few days, become a concrete reality for millions of us who have received letters from our energy suppliers explaining just how much bills will go up by. The size of the increases has shocked many people, who have publicly expressed their views on social media.

Partly, this is a function of the way that the cap is published by Ofgem and, it has to be said, reported in the media.

The energy regulator typically refers to how the cap will go up for an average energy consumer. That figure will jump from £1,277 to £1,971 per year from 1 April.

This could give the impression that a customer's total bill cannot go over a certain level when in fact it is the cost for each unit of gas or electricity that is capped.

In any case, the only increase that really matters to most of us is the actual rise in our monthly payments. Some high energy users are receiving statements informing them that their bills will rise by more than £1,000 a year.

British Gas has told customers that they will pay 28p-30p per kWh for electricity. Shell Energy is raising the price of 1kWh of electricity from 20.9p to 29.2p. At the same time, its gas rates will change from 4.05p to 7.34p per kWh.

Customers also face big increases in the daily standing charges they pay, meaning that bills will go up even when no energy is being used.

There is worse to come, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine causing another big jump in wholesale energy prices. That will filter through to households from October when some analysts expect average bills to rise past £3,000 a year.

Rising energy bills are, of course, a trifling concern compared to the death and destruction currently facing Ukraine. However, they are also an immediate problem for millions of people struggling to make ends meet in the UK.

The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, conceded on Monday that the UK faces an “economic cost” from the Ukraine invasion but that it was a price the country must be willing to pay.

Yet the government has only stumped up a fraction of the extra cost of sky-high energy prices. People struggling to keep their homes warm who are now being hit with huge bill increases may wish that the government had been willing to bear more of that price collectively.