To wonder how people will financially survive?

[Cupcakeicecream]

To think that many people are struggling already. Food price rises, gas and electric costs. The general cost of living due to inflation from either brexit since the pandemic and Ukraine war. But come on some people were struggling before any of those factors. Financially people will be pushed to breaking christmas will be off the cards general life will stagnate no meals out leisure activities cinema socialising new clothes treat foods. The threat of blackouts and wondering how we will pay bills to keep warm or keep a house running. Never mind buying food the price of it plus the large gaps on shelves. Winter will be miserable. It's becoming impossible to live in this country.

Surely the govt need to accept rising energy prices as part of the Ukraine war and therefore if they can afford to send so much arms and aid to Ukraine they also need to pay the increase in energy costs for everyone.

I think if the govt keep blaming the war then people in the U.K. will soon be telling the U.K. to stop supporting Ukraine and let Putin have what he wants! 🤷‍♀️

@PlacidPenelope
Being in the EU would mean our GDP wouldn’t be in the process of falling, meaning the government would have higher future tax revenues (from businesses and corporations) with which to help subsidise/aid with any energy price rises.

Surely the vast majority won't get anywhere near £800 per month though?

The new cap of 3549 works out as "only" £295 per month, and that is based on the average household.
So if its the average then roughly half the country will be paying less than that anyway. And that's also based on the prediction that said average household uses the same amount of energy as they did last year, when obviously most people will be trying to cut down. And a lot of people have lower fixed rates so won't be dependent on the cap.

So household using £800 worth of energy would be using nearly triple the amount of the "average" household.

Energy isn’t going up because of Brexit, but Brexit will certainly mean we will feel pinch over the next decade + that bit more than we otherwise would have.

Yes but the cap in January is due to go up further, and potentially reach £6-7k so what will people do the when it’s “only” £600+?

do you really think that this is all going to just go away if we get a Labor administration?

That's a very American way of putting it. We call it a Labour government generally.

In 2015 Ed Miliband had plans to make us energy self-sufficient via wind and tidal, reduce our dependency on gas, and embark on a nationwide insulation programme.

If this had happened our country would have increased energy security, be less dependent on Putin, and far less vulnerable to rising prices on the world market.

Jeremy Corbyn planned to do similar plus nationalise energy.

If that had happened we wouldn't be in this position at all.

I'm not up to date on the Labour party's current plan, perhaps you could summarise it?

Hardly surprising. It's not remotely realistic either.

Except that 40 -50 years ago privatised energy companies weren’t making and publicising record profits while gouging the public and forcing them to choose between feeding their families or keeping warm. As far as I can see the energy cap is becoming some sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

This is a lot more than seeing ice on the insides of the windows and putting on an extra woolly to keep warm. People are going to die this winter, and there’s no end in sight, so let’s see if you’re still ‘looking forward to it’ come next April when the cap is set to rise to over £5500 and you’re frightened to turn on a light, never mind put the heating on !!

I’ve already got mine. My supplier won’t take on new customers as he can’t cope with the demand and said he’ll be totally out of logs in a few weeks.

@Rosscameasdoody exactly! I remember when we used to run out of hot water and had no central heating.

Posted too soon....but that was the norm in the 70s and 80s. We were a working class family but could pay bills, we had good food, holidays and there was nowhere near the same inequality.

It's going to be hard. And beyond staying warm at home, the commercial rates are inconceivable to absorb, so many restaurants and takeaways and public leisure places - libraries will be forced to shut. All artificially engineered through political, nationalistic chest beating and climate change prevarification rather than global co-opration .

I am a listed building owner. Not rich by any means. Retired. We can't do much more to insulate or reduce our energy consumption (legally). Estimated bill to keep our house dry not hot and have hot water will be upward of £15k. We have a frugal lifestyle already by many standards, no holidays, seldom eat out. Downsize? Who would buy our house now? Very little concessions or solutions for us - e.g the poor sods coaxed into foam roof insulations (by charlatan firms enabled by government) are now facing bankrupting 6 figure sums for whole roof replacements. I feel for everyone but a personal shout out to all listed building owners who might feel too privileged to moan on here. Just another perspective. Many opportunities to pre-empty and tackle missed by this government which is truly asleep on their watch. IMHO.

The new cap of 3549 works out as "only" £295 per month, and that is based on the average household.

And if it goes up as predicted in January the cap of £5387 will be only £448pm.

And if it goes up in April as predicted, the cap of £6616 will be only £551 per month.

That's getting awfully close to £600pm for a lot of people. Maybe even the majority.

Increasing the cost of something is a very flawed way to get people to reduce their usage of it though, because what that essentially means is that those who can afford the extra cost aren't incentivised to be any more responsible with their consumption. It means those who can afford it, which actually is still going to be a fair few people particularly given that many of us are on fixes still, aren't actually receiving the message in the same way.

I think everyone is going to be in recession by the end of the year. PMI is falling in Germany and France. The Fed has indicated they will be pushing ahead with rate rises (which they have to and seem to be signalling they will push the USA into a recession to control inflation) strengthening the dollar, the euro has already fallen further than the pound and I believe is at parity with the dollar (europe needs to keep pace with rate rises to hold the real cost of commodities which are traded in dollars so gas oil- however they have been extremely slow to do so, so who knows how that will go) No-one is doing great here. I think you expect to see a drop in GDP across a lot of Europe by 2023. I’m not saying Brexit is not having any effect but the reality is being part of the EU or not would make bugger all difference to the cost of energy. We probably would have been roped into the agreed rationing strategy and been slightly worse off.

Horrible year coming for pretty much everyone. It’s shit.

I do wish though that the tories could just get a move on with this leadership election, declare a winner who can start getting to grips with this (if thats even possible). Too much energy wasted on it when the country is facing a tsunami of shit.

I assume those who said YABU OP are the rich contingent for whom the idea of sitting in a totally freezing house will be theoretical.

@latetothefisting

The average energy bill for the four weeks of January is expected to be £700. Same again for February. High usage months. And yes it's an average. I'm an average user. I'm used to paying about £100 a month.

For most of the last few years the price cap was about £1200, in April it went up to £1,971, today it's £3,549, in January it's expected to be £5,386, and then to go up again in April to over £7000.

So that's £583.33 per month and it's only April.

It's expected to go up again in October. It's not at all exactly unfeasible that an average user like me who is used to paying £100 a month who will need to be paying at least £295 a month now, then around £448 in January and £583 in April, will be paying £800 a month next autumn.

I've had a feeling of impending doom all week, the realisation being that I don't want to be here anymore. Life is too hard. It was just about bearable before (serious illness meaning I'm registered disabled,) now any tiny spark of joy has been extinguished. I don't have great expectations or lead an extravagant life but I can no longer justify those little extras that made it vaguely enjoyable.
I can afford this Winter by using up our savings but once they're gone, they're gone for good. DH can't change his low paid job because of me. I can't work so there's no way to increase our earnings. I've never felt so defeated, they'd be better off without me and we don't have any debt.
I am at home all day and feel the cold as physical pain. Our heating (gas bill) in Winter was already double that of our friends. I can't begin to wrap my head around facing bills of six thousand pounds plus per year. If my life stopped today at least my family would have a chance but I couldn't put them through that. There isn't a solution to makes this ok.

I am trying to work out if I can afford nursery fees. It means my son gets 3 meals a day Monday to Thursday and as I work there I get a free lunch but fees are high even with my discount and are probably going up in October but our wages aren't.
Also I'm fine with one meal a day but what about my teenagers and husband? They need to eat too.
I'm going to look for a second job as there is literally no other option.

@Rinatinabina your analysis is interesting but Brexit has added a further layer of economic disadvantage for the UK relative to other countries. Furthermore we are now particularly ill-equipped to cope given that the government has been largely divested of any capable politicians.

In 2015 Ed Miliband had plans to make us energy self-sufficient via wind and tidal

Last year had one of the least windy summers on record since 1961;

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/13/britain-last-coal-power-stations-to-be-paid-huge-sums-to-keep-lights-on-record-energy-prices

Listed building resident here as well (not a house but a flat in a UNESCO designated area). We also can’t do much about insulation, etc. Also unable to have a smart meter installed. Had it all arranged with EDF (our provider), when the guy showed up at our door he immediately balked at the tenement aspect, said “no can do” and left.

@Loachworks so sorry you are feeling that way. I do hope they announce some help will be coming to you.