Energy bills: Fuel cost hike puts pressure on families amid unprecedented £700 rise
Householders say they sometimes don’t eat to save money as people face cost-of-living crisis
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Your support makes all the difference.Families have described how they are struggling to cover their food and energy costs as annual energy bills rise by around £700.
One site manager told The Independent how he couldn’t afford to socialise any more, and a hairdressing business owner said he could not always afford meals, saying: “Sometimes I eat, sometimes I don’t”.
The £693-a-year rise in a typical energy bill will affect 18 million households, and 4.5 million customers on prepaid meters will face an increase of £708 a year.
The rising prices will double the number of households in “fuel stress” – a term for those spending 10 per cent or more of their income after housing costs on energy bills – overnight from 2.5 to 5 million in England alone, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.
Protesters from the climate group Just Stop Oil blocked “10 critical oil terminals” across the UK this morning, as the biggest rise in British energy bills takes effect.
See below for how our live coverage unfolded.
People driven to use food banks for the first time due to rising energy bills
Denzil and Desiree Prospere from East London are using the food bank for the first time, Thomas Kingsley writes.
They say they never thought things would get to this point. “It’s hard because we have a smart meter and we top it up but it doesn’t last long between benefits,” they told The Independent.
“You have £100 set aside for the smart meter but we have to use some of the money for groceries.
“Before groceries used to be £80 a week, but now everything increased it’s about £120 a week. This is our first time coming to the food bank.
“This place is a life saver. I never thought things would get to this level. Friends told us about it but we never thought we’d need it.
“The government hasn’t helped. The food banks help more than the government. We have three kids. A 16 year old, 9 year old and 6 year old. My 6 year old just finished leukaemia treatment so I’ve been caring for her at home and not able to work,” Desiree said.
Energy bills help: Who is eligible for the discount?
Rishi Sunak has announced an aid package for British households worth a combined £350 in an attempt to ease the pain of rocketing energy bills.
Mr Sunak unveiled the measures to the House of Commons earlier this year after Ofgem, the UK regulator, announced that its energy price cap would have to be raised by a record-breaking 54 per cent in response to spiraling global gas prices.
But who is eligible for the discount?
Read more here:
‘Every month we are in debt’: Mum-of-three describes how her family struggles on one salary
Mum-of-three Rifat Shakil told Maryam Zakir-Hussainabout juggling everyday costs to support her family.
“I have to spend a lot of money on food with three kids,” she told The Independent.
“When you think about money on rent, electricity, and the extra burden of kids then what choice is there but to borrow?The 35-year-old is not working currently so her family depend on her husband who works in Tesco.
“One person’s income, how can that balance everything?
“Every month you are in minus. To avoid overdraft payments we don’t use bank money and we have to borrow from friends.
“The government should first think about how to fix the problems of earning before raising other bills.”
Energy boss: Extra £500-600 will be added to bills in October
Boss of energy firm Utilita, Bill Bullen, has warned that elderly people and children were at serious risk over the winter period.
He said that energy bills will likely rise further in October by an “extra £500 or £600”, adding: “frankly the chancellor’s going to have to fund that entirely for low-income households.
“He won’t be able to afford to take this problem away for everybody... but for customers who can’t respond to that price [increase], that’s where the help needs to be targeted.”
Workers cutting down on social life to save money to pay food and energy bills
Harry Benhem, 25, a site manager at a school, has told The Independent how he has had to stop socialising so he can cover his food and energy bills.
He told Thomas Kingsley: “It’s very restrictive hopefully it’ll get better but I can’t see it going anywhere any time soon.
“Meals are more expensive when we go out. Food is more expensive. My energy has doubled; it’s gone from £40 to £80 overnight.
“Now I need to find an extra £40. I’ll have to cut out everything just to get by. I can’t go out. l have to buy bare basic food and drinks, no treats, no days out, no meals, no seeing friends unless it’s a walk over the park”
‘The government is just not in touch with real life'
Phillippa Cressey just quit her job yesterday so rising energy bills is “not what [she] wants to hear today”, writes Maryam Zakir-Hussain.
The 49-year-old said: “It is worrying. I think we’re going to see a lot of homelessness.“
My partner drives for a job so the cost of diesel and petrol is through the roof right now.
“Do you pay the bills or do you eat? What do you do?
“The government is just not in touch with real life at all. As long as they’re alright I don’t really think they care about the public.
“It’s all figures and numbers. As long as their numbers add up, I don’t think they care what’s happening to us.”
Analysis: The gap between the rich and the poor is too wide – but we’ve got to get the facts right
“The gap between the rich and the poor in the UK has been broadly unchanged in the three decades since 1990, and yet the belief that it is widening – which was true in the 1980s – has persisted, writes John Rentoul.
“At the moment, with the pressures on the cost of living, things are getting worse for poor people – but they are getting worse for everybody, and that is the other problem with questions of poverty and inequality. Any sensible definition of poverty has to be relative, because what matters to people is how they compare with those around them, but these are complex things to measure, and difficult to reduce to easily comparable numbers.”
Read more in this premium piece here:
The gap between rich and poor is too wide – but get the facts right | John Rentoul
New statistics on income stubbornly refuse to confirm what ‘everyone knows’, which is that inequality is growing, writes John Rentoul
Government trying to distract from energy crisis with U-turn on conversion therapy, Keir Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has suggested the Government’s double U-turn on conversion therapy is being used to distract from the cost of living crisis.
On a visit to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, the Labour leader said: “All conversion therapy in all its forms is wrong. The Government should just keep to its promises on this.
“But, look, let’s be honest and clear about what’s happening today: the Government is trying to get us all to talk about conversion therapy because they don’t want us focusing on the cost-of-living crisis, on the increase in energy bills, where they’ve got such a pathetic response.
“So, it’s wrong, the Government should keep to its promises. But, you know, this is classic Conservative trying to sort of distract people over here, when really the issue is the cost of living and energy prices.”
‘The government doesn’t care about us’
Fernanda Rodrigues, single mum-of-three from east London, said the government doesn’t care about the poorest people and said she may have to return to Portugal if things continue to worsen, writes Thomas Kingsley.
“It’s bad, it’s very bad. Everyone knows it’s bad. It’s too much,” Ms Rodrigues told The Independent.
“We have to find a way to survive. I can’t be in a situation where I don’t have food for my children. If things get too bad I’ll return to Portugal. I can’t suffer in the UK, I have three children.
“I’m studying to be a social worker, it’s really difficult as a single mum but we have to make these sacrifices to do better.
“The government don’t care about us. The song by Michael Jackson - they don’t care about us - is the soundtrack of this government.”
Energy price cap hike: How can the government help with bills?
UK electricity and gas prices will soar this spring after regulator Ofgem revised its energy price cap. But what can the government do to help?
Business correspondent Ben Chapman and Joe Sommerlad have written about what options the government has to consider.
Read the full story here:
How can the UK government help reduce soaring gas and electricity bills?
UK energy crisis: What can government do?
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