It feels like it should be an April Fool but unfortunately it isn’t – household bills are set to soar for millions of people from today as the energy price cap rises to record levels.
Charities warned some 2.5 million more households will fall into ‘fuel stress’ from April 1 onwards.
Fuel stress, or fuel poverty, means a household is spending more than 10% of its total budgets on energy bills.
The Resolution Foundation think tank said this number in England doubled overnight from 2.5 to five million.
Citizens Advice chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty said: ‘The energy price cap rise will be potentially ruinous for millions of people across the country.
‘The support announced so far from the Government simply isn’t enough for those who’ll be hit hardest.
‘With the long-anticipated price rises now hitting, many more people will face the kind of heart-rending choices that our frontline advisers already see all too often.’
Energy bills are set to increase by 54% from today as the price cap jumps by an eye-watering £700.
Ofgem was forced to hike the energy price cap to a record £1,971 for a typical household as wholesale gas prices soared to unprecedented highs.
Websites of energy suppliers crashed yesterday as people rushed to submit their final meter readings before the price cap increase.
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis advised people to do this to prevent firms from estimating usage and potentially charging for energy used before April 1 at the much higher rate.
The British Gas, EDF, E.On, Shell Energy, Scottish Power, So Energy and Octopus Energy websites were all said to be experiencing problems yesterday, with knock-on effects this morning.
One supplier, E.On Next, even blamed Mr Lewis for its website going down.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the Government to help people be able to afford food and their energy bills.
He told Sky News the Government does not get ‘the scale of the problem for millions and millions of people’.
‘People don’t want a revolution,’ he added. ‘They do want to know “how am I going to pay my energy bill which has just gone up today by hundreds of pounds”.
‘I was in Stevenage last week talking to pensioners. They weren’t saying, “Keir, we want the revolution.” They were saying, “Keir, we’re really worried about our bills.”
‘For people to make a choice between heating and eating – in 21st century Britain what people want to know is, is the Labour Party, does it understand those worries? The answer is yes, we do.’
The energy price cap for default tariffs is rising by £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 from April 1. Pre-payment customers will see a bigger jump, going up £708, from £1,309 to £2,017.
But the cost of living crisis is also seeing broadband, mobile and water bills, council tax and national insurance contributions also rising this month – and the effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine are also yet to be seen.
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