I wonder how it will pan out. I've not seen the huge price hike personally, not to the degree being hinted at in media. "Fears are growing that millions more families could be pushed into poverty by the end of the year in the worst cost of living crisis since the 1950s." and up to 7K costs per year, adding £600 to monthly household bills, many of which simply do not have it.
So I think many households will have to simply not pay. That won't be a choice, it will be a case of not having the money to pay.
I know this is MN but I've lived in poverty all my life, only now am I comfortable because I'm married and more responsible with my own money and we have a good family income. So I know what it's like to prioritise debts; who chases you the fastest, hardest, who you can put off etc.
You have to pay rent and council tax first, and I would imagine mortgage is also a priority? I wondered about repossessions but asked here and apparently they won't repossess for utility debt. So people may choose to pay utility debt first, rather than get behind on their mortgage? Can you imagine which you would choose if it came down to it?
The energy companies will have so many to chase because of this, they won't have the manpower to chase them all.
As long as you are calling them every month, paying something, even if you say 'okay you want £100 a month, I don't have it, I will pay you £20 a month every month towards my bills and the mounting debt' and they WILL keep off your back if you do it this way. Then you may be able to stay head above water with other bills that you were comfortably paying or at least managing to pay before.
The reality for many of us, myself included (not at present but it took me four decades to get here) is that you have about a week at the end of each month with no money at all, anything you need to pay gets deferred to the next month's pay packet. In that week you finish your beans on toast (if you have the nous to shop effectively which is a whole other issue in itself) and you sit tight until wages come through (or giro)
These people will have to choose who to become in massive debt to. I would think if they are unfortunate enough to have 20-odd years left of their liability to pay a bank for the house they live in, they would likely prioritise that debt I should expect, but that's as someone who has never entered into such a contract, by choice.
The renters may well choose to fall behind on rent if they are socially housed, because you can do this for quite a while before anything meaningful happens, i.e. eviction. In cases of massive cost of living increases you become more secure as someone on a lower income if you are socially housed than if you have a mortgage.
This will of course turn into massive arrears for social housing companies who may well go bust?
PRivate renters won't have that option, they are MORE vulnerable than mortgage holders because their landlord will become aggressive very quickly to get them out.
There will be a few different situations but I do think that if you wanted to offer that payment to them and just stay head above water and see who and how they begin tackling what is going to be a huge default situation, then decide from there.
One might reason 'well, I will keep paying what I have been paying and ignore the increase' - I do believe these people will be lower on the list of chase-ups we will see for the reasons I mentioned above.
But there will 100% be people who cannot and therefore will not pay these bills; some will get prepayment metres (some of them will refuse entry and get backup via the many groups set up around this like boots on the ground), some will default on their rent or mortgage for fear of sitting in the cold tomorrow (as opposed in a few weeks' time when the family are on the streets), some will spread costs and end up with bigger debts to all creditors.
It will be a mishmash of approaches and consequences and I envisage a relatively comfortable position sitting behind the furore making your regular payments and seeing what happens.