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?

@cakeorwine

I think they mean annually, once the cap rises in the winter. The energy cap will be about 4,200, and average take home pay is just over 2000, so it will be 2 entire pay checks out if 12.

In that case anyone earning less than about 70k needs to be in universal credit! Bills are expected to rise to over 5k next year.

Whilst the worse off in society are really struggling and this really isn't ok and whoever the next Prime minister happens to be needs to address this as a matter of urgency, I think the fact that even middle income families are worried about how they will manage just illustrates how bad this crisis is. Senior politicians really need to take note. Most economic crises affect only the poorest. This doesn't, it affects everyone, except maybe the millionaires of society - (Like David Cameron who helped to get us into this mess in the first place, Boris Johnson (who is completely dishonest) and yes, probably Rishi Sunak who has no idea what it is like to live in the real world when you're wondering how much your next pay check might cover). Not that I think truss has it all right either.

I also think that in the current climate, it is wrong on so many levels that only Conservative party members get to choose our PM going forward. They could pick a person who will make things even worse than they already are.

Sorry, but at this point, I think we need a general election

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

And all they can do is offer that Truss woman to deal with it, who has not got a fucking clue.

Most middle class families will feel the pinch due to energy prices and the increase in costs generally. Time to think about whether voting Tory is in their best interests. If France can hold energy bill increases to 4% and the Germans to 23% it seems bizarre that the Tories can't achieve the same.

Time to think about whether voting Tory is in their best interests. If France can hold energy bill increases to 4% and the Germans to 23% it seems bizarre that the Tories can't achieve the same.

They can if they use public money. Irrespective of whether you feel that public money was spent unwisely in the pandemic, U.K. public sector net debt is now over £2 trillion, or £75,000 per taxpayer, the highest since 1962.

How do you spend public money? On the NHS and social care or subsidising energy prices that are a function of global supply and demand. You have to make difficult choices and draw the line somewhere, there's not an unlimited pot of money.

You do know that many of us receiving council tax support are still having to pay anything up to 20% of our council tax?

Why if you're earning 2.5k a month, would you renting somewhere that's 1.5k?

Agree op I don’t think just targeting pensioners and UC will go down well - iirc that is Sunak’s plan if he gets it

I'm self employed and earn around £1200 a month, sometimes more but sometimes a lot less. Because I have savings, I'm not eligible for any help but I can't access those savings (they are locked in long term). Plus they are the only thing I have for old age as I don't have a pension. I am not saying I should get handouts, but it's frustrating to see a friend on benefits get more income than me and lots of help. The answer isn't more handouts but government seriously doing something about the energy companies. For example, how can they be making profits or giving out shareholder dividends while charging people so much. And what use is the energy cap if it's set at thousands per year.

We are paying £146 a month now up from £123 so pretty low - 3 bed townhouse. Not sure how bills are do much higher unless you have a mansion. 4 adults here 3 using the tumble dryer (despite me encouraging otherwise). I think people need to turn their thermostats down (I've always set mine at 18) and put on jumpers. Anyone thinking of moving, look at housing built in the last 15 years, so much more energy efficient and terraced is warmer

Ps we are donating the equivalent to our £400 to the food bank which helps low income families with energy costs

Yes, I do. I didn’t say they would get full support, I said they would be eligible for council tax support. My post was in reply to the post I quoted who said ”But me on my £343.. what options do I have?” (it’s actually £334.91) They have to option of claiming council tax support (in additional to the 25% single occupancy discount). It is disingenuous to claim the only benefit/support they receive is the standard element of UC and there is no other option for support.

No idea about the rent, I don’t rent and it wasn’t me who posted about that.

What is your yearly usage in KWH?

The average is about 12,000 KWH in gas and 2900 KWH electricity

Quoting what you pay is meaningless. Quoting your usage would be interesting

I think you are right, I'm a lone parent to 2 dc and work 3 days a week. My salary and top up benefits come in at £1900 pcm. My outgoings are about £1000 including food. I'm an older mum and managed to pay my mortgage off last year (it was only 28k as bought the hose i 1996). I can absorb the costs of the energy increase. But I know people I work with that are much higher paid who are and will struggle.

Thos

it is £67 a month everyone doesn’t have to find

but yes move it to savings , if any

or that week towards food shopping etx

We purposely downsized last year because of this issue. Friends and family thought we were mad!

I was worried that our mortgage was getting too high, we also had unsecured debt due to my illness and had huge outgoings for a house we didn't need.

Now we're in a small house and our outgoings are small, we paid off the unsecured debt and I'm hoping we'll be OK but we still have to be frugal and mindful of electricity usage.

Just so happens that I was made redundant a few months ago and the job market is very quiet. It's scary how quickly things change.

I've been buying cheap firewood this Summer as a backup way to heat the home if there are gas issues.

Yep. It’s fine saying, ‘oh well, give up the bread from the nice bakery on a weekend and go to Aldi, or stop going to the hairdresser, or stop your monthly meal at the local pub’, but what then happens to those businesses?

The super rich won’t be popping to the high street to make up their lost earnings.

I’m genuinely worried about affording energy bills come October. I wasn’t even this worried about it when I was in my early twenties and on the bones of my arse - because they were manageable and only went up a tiny bit each year.

I hate comments like this

Did she tell you her outgoings? Maybe she pays childcare. Maybe she has a kid in uni. Maybe she pays care home fees. Maybe she cares for someone disabled. Maybe she has a side business she needs to fund. Maybe she got on the housing ladder post 2012 and had to pay half a million for a standard terraced house.

Life isn't what it used to be. Boomers let the unions get decimated and let the capitalists that the pi$s.

Stop judging people FFS and accept life is expensive now and the thrift people used back in the 80s might not be enough to deal with the monsters we have today

I said:
"£343.. that's the monthly UC for an adult.. to pay gas, electric, food, council tax.."

TBF the figure is £10 too high, it is £334.91.
That's the standard element.
I made up of elements dependant on what the claimant is entitled too so childcare, rent, child, standard.

It is disingenuous to claim the only benefit/support they receive is the standard element of UC and there is no other option for support.

I didn't claim that the standard element is all anyone can claim. Merely that it was meant to cover the costs I listed. I am glad you pointed out that I was £10 too high though.

Worth noting that council tax support isn't cash someone's given, it's a reduction of the bill, £743 off the year in my case. With the £150 government payment, I'm left about 20% of total to pay, or around £20 month in my case.

I wasn't attempting to be 'disingenuous' when I said 343 is to cover the costs I listed, apologies of it came across that way, was merely stating that the standard unemployed element is paid to cover costs other than rent, which is..
gas, electric, food, council tax, TV, internet, phone, insurance, water, etc.

"There's no money in the pot to pay for anyone's bills"

This has been a common comment as long as I can remember but billions were found to do exactly this for furlough tack and trace and dodgy PPE contracts to political donors.

A few politicians have come out and said this is a National emergency and solutions could be found if they wanted to do so. Indtead we get politicians telling people who haven't had a rise in real terms since 2008 that payrises will make them poorer when they face being unable to hear their homes, afford their mortgages or food shop!

You may want to do a bit more research on that.

You may want to do a bit more research on that.*

Agreed. Quite a bit in fact.

I said:

"£343.. that's the monthly UC for an adult.. to pay gas, electric, food, council tax.."

You did, you also said But me on my £343.. what options do I have? which is why I thought it came across as though you were saying the standard element of UC is the only option when there is other support including council tax support. Apologies if that’s not how you meant it. It’s also worth noting there are lower phone and internet tariffs for those on UC.

Worth noting that council tax support isn't cash someone's given, it's a reduction of the bill

I never said it was, but it is still a reduction in what someone needs to pay.

YANBU op. We have a joint household income of £70k (family of 4, living in greater London with a pretty high monthly mortgage) and just had our quarterly energy bill through for May-Aug and it is over £400. I actually forgot to submit meter readings this month and have just checked the meters and the energy company's estimate is in fact lower than what we've used. I am pretty horrified. Due to childcare costs, imminently rising mortgage payment (we fixed to a new deal as early as we could but it has still increased by £100/month), rising fuel costs and rising food costs we no longer have any cushion in our budget and I genuinely don't know how we will afford our winter energy bills. I increased our monthly payment a few months ago to try and build up a surplus for winter but looking at today's bill that is now only enough to just cover this quarterly bill. This time last year we paid £60/month DD for energy. We are now paying £150 DD and it is still not going to be enough to cover winter usage. I feel very very anxious about what autumn and winter are going to bring. I can't even imagine how families on much lower incomes must be feeling right now. The situation is unacceptable and untenable. The government lack of action is appalling and I will happily take to the streets come autumn to voice my displeasure.

I'm not underestimating the scale of the problem. But which pot do you want the government to take the money from? Education, healthcare, defence?

I'd agree that a lot of money was wasted during the pandemic and no doubt still is. But our public debt is enormous and p we have to stop somewhere.

Global energy prices are not within our government's control, albeit we could investigate other sources of energy but it's not going to have a material impact in the short term.