to think it’s not just the most vulnerable households that will need help with soaring energy bills?

[Itsokay2020]

Just that really, I appreciate that all households will receive £400 from October (and we’ll be saving this money!) but we are a working household, with a mortgage but little other personal debt. We earn decent salaries, or at least they were, but if our energy bills increase from £130 to £350 plus, we will find things tight. We are not expecting any significant salary increases in the next 12 months.

We haven’t had a family holiday abroad for several years, our cars are 9 years old, we rarely had takeaways and have stopped them altogether now. We’ve performed a financial review of our household expenditure, we can cut back if necessary (gym/tv subscriptions) but even so it doesn’t leave a huge amount of room for manoeuvre. I would prefer to get a second job than stop pension contributions, and have started to look more seriously at this.

We’re questioning whether to sell up, and could potentially have enough equity to be mortgage free, but leaving family, friends and jobs we love stops us in our tracks.

So, AIBU to feel that many households will need help, not just those deemed vulnerable?

Yup, the middle classes are the ones who are always being screwed over - they get no help via benefits yet have to pay all the taxes to fund the benefits system since the very rich and the poor don't pay anything. I reckon there will be a revolution if this continues. The tax burden is too high and completely unfair!

Tbh I was all set to say you were not being unreasonable until you said you could be mortgage free!

Absolutely, those of us in the squeezed middle are in one of the worst positions. Our energy provider is predicting £560 a month in January. We were paying £90 in January this year. On top of that our mortgage is up for renewal so that will be another big hike. I've no idea where we are supposed to magic all this extra money from.

YANBU and it is incredibly short sighted of people. Most are expecting some kind of income leveller so the middle are taxed more to subsidise everyone else so everyone is in the shit together.

If people can’t afford takeaways, gym, leisure, tourism, retail and hospitality our economy will literally collapse and take most jobs with it.

But the help should only be for those who will have to heat or eat. It might get a bit tough for my family for a bit but I'm not ever going to have to think twice about turning the heating on. Personally if all the help goes to families which desperately need it I don't mind paying a bit more temporarily until things get back to normal.

I don't think this is a far stretch these days. We bought a house for £90k 11 years ago.

Current mortgage is £63k but the house is now worth £170k ish

It's not an amazing area - council estate in the North East but we could sell up and buy a cheaper house and be mortgage free 🤷‍♀️

The £400 is going to your energy company rather than you directly so you can't save it for other purposes.

Yep. We're a one-income household due to my DH not being able to work for mental health reasons, yet not "bad" enough to get any DLA/PIP. My wage has to cover everything and I earn too much to get anything in benefits (~£2k/month), but not enough that we have much left over at the end of the month. An increase of more than about £150 a month on anything is going to put us in the shit. My energy DD has already risen from £95 to £215 a month since April.

We are cutting back on anything non-essential, although I have two days out planned for the holiday so my DC have something to look forward to. But after that, I dread to think what our balance is going to look like.

I can't disagree with the premise. Everyone is hard hit. It's not just the poorest.

But your answer is handouts to more people? Who the hell do you think pays for those? There's no money in the pot to pay for anyone's bills. The country is £trillions in debt already. Getting further into debt is never an answer.

YANBU. There needs to be drastic intervention beneficial to all with extra help for the most vulnerable. Multiple actions need to happen imho. (Cuts to VAT, stringent rules on how much profit energy companies can make before any being required to go back to the customers)

We will go from staying within our budget to going overdrawn by quite a lot every month and we have a joint income in the top 7.5% apparently. I'm worried as I imagine all but the super wealthy (Rishi? do you hear me?) will be.

Time to review the pensioners' winter fuel allowance dished out en masse to millions simply by virtue of age, very many of whom don't even need it. Rebrand it as a cost of living allowance and redistribute it as needed across all the age groups.

@Carpy88999 but we will be in that position yet don't fall into the help bracket
One child in uni that we have to help support , another child at home.
2 cars tp run finish paying off bought 2nd hand on finance to get to work as no public transport suitable in our area
On what I would consider an ok wage but these increases are massive and we will def have to eat or heat at times

The government needs to tell the energy companies that unless they get their houses in order and stop profiteering then they will be nationalised.

passing handouts to people is not the answer, it just goes to line the pockets of energy execs

@cptartapp that would cost more than it saves as many many do need it , its a myth that more pensioners don't need it than do

@Frustratedandsneezy exactly that , its the only answer

Yup, the middle classes are the ones who are always being screwed over - they get no help via benefits yet have to pay all the taxes to fund the benefits system since the very rich and the poor don't pay anything

FFS. How many times? The majority of people who claim benefits are in work and therefore tax payers in their own right.

Get that right.

Whats also worrying is the talk off electric blackouts etc just as we seem to be pushing towards more reliance on electric ( cars , heating etc )

This. Why do people think they're getting it in cash.

@Ithinkthatisenoughnowthanks yes many do , but many get more back than they pay
I was in that position , not their fault as the fact a job and wage cannot sustain you without handouts is the issue

@gamerchick I think because for those who qualified for the other extra help/ money this was given in cash

If you're "not ever going to have to think twice about turning the heating on" then bully for you. I think many, many people like myself who have always just put it on when they're cold will definitely be thinking very hard about putting it on this winter. I could have afforded it doubling but they're now suggesting rises of 3.5 or 4 times what is was last winter. That's my rainy day money, my fun money, and it will all be gone on gas and electric, every penny. A bleak outlook indeed.

You say you "don't mind paying a bit more temporarily until things get back to normal"

Things will never go back to normal. They might go down a bit but they'll not quarter the size of the bills to a mere £100 / month. We'll always be paying a lot more I suspect.

Right and they are negative contributors. Positive economic contributors (who pay more than they take out) will often be worse off than those claiming top ups (if on a threshold). They are right in what they say.

Isn't it 60 quid a month or something off your energy bills for a bit.

It's weirding me out that people think there getting a lumpa.

I do hope that the squeezed middle remember this shit show when voting in the next general election. The Conservative party are showing clearly that they do not serve the majority. Liz Truss is out there refusing to tax the massive profits of oil companies and talking about disliking handouts.