Price cap forecasts for January rise to over £4,200 as wholesale prices surge again and Ofgem revises cap methodology
Price cap forecasts for January rise to over £4,200 as wholesale prices surge again and Ofgem revises cap methodology
37 comments
Truss, Sunak and Johnson really need to get together (they are the same political party FFS) and come up with a properly costed and reasoned plan that they can all agree on and that can be put into place NOW, not in September.
I don’t know what that plan could be, but they need to at least seem like they are doing something, and no, the “well the civil service are still working behind the scenes” line doesn’t cut it.
It keeps going up and up. And the more it goes up, the more people will die this winter.
Husband and I are certainly getting into the “I genuinely cant afford this” bracket here.
Seriously, how are single occupied households where the person is on like 20Kish going to manage this?
And wheres the actual anger? I’m still waiting for there to be more than the mildest grumble of discontent. Its so weird man. In 2022 Maggies poll tax could unironically be rewarmed and rolled out and people would just be placidly nodding and shrugging.
This is fucking insane. It’d be insane even if we had a government that felt any obligation towards running the country at all rather than just enriching themselves…but that’s not the situation, we have a government that doesn’t want or feel the need to help at all and seem offended that we might ask them to do something.
How many people need to die this winter, how many need end up in such amounts of debt that they cannot escape…potentially even leading to them ending their life, it has and does happen. What about disabled people? This finally the Tories seeing their wet dreams of killing them all off, huh?
Fuck.
I’m starting a new job in September so can’t wait for my pay rise to go straight towards my energy bill. We’ve been fairly comfortable so far but I’ve found myself finishing the month with less and less money and having to cut down on luxuries.
Can’t imagine how bad things are for people on less income than we have.
Something needs to be done.
This is terrible. Abolish Ofgem and nationalise the energy companies. No one will object now.
Cornwall Insight’s projections have been pretty good over the past few price cap changes – the methodology for setting the prices is set in place and they understand it properly so the closer we get to the date the more this is a calculation rather than a “guess what’s going to happen in the future” kind of calculation.
£4,200 a year is absolutely nuts.
The old definition of fuel poverty used to be that your home energy bills adds up to more than 10% of your take home earnings. That would now be the case for someone who’s on a salary of **£68,000** (assuming minimum pension contributions and student loan repayments)!
If you’re on £27,000 a year then this average fuel bill would be 20% of your take home pay.
Most people don’t have £4,200 a year to pay. Everyone’s talking about the “don’t pay” campaigns that are being spread across social media but millions of people aren’t going to pay because they just simply can’t, no matter how many other changes they make to their lives!
FUCK OFGEM. Seriously, the people at the top don’t seem to have the balls to do anything about this. And they claim to be on our side… 🤬
Keep the cap in place and buy out the companies that go bust because of it.
Truss is too busy cosplaying at Thatcher to notice.
Don’t like hot water, anyway. Nor do I enjoy not freezing in the winter. This is fine.
Bruh this is getting almost comical.
Stepping away from household bills for a moment – how are schools and hospitals supposed to cope with their threadbare budgets?
If the “cap” keeps going up whenever the companies want the cap to go up then it **isn’t a fucking cap is it?**
The problem is that we have a limited supply of energy to go around due to years of underinvestment and a very short-sighted belief in The Market(TM) that is going to come home to roost this winter when countries stop trading to the highest bidder and start looking after their own people regardless of the meaningless financial penalties that will be imposed. Fridges are powered by electrons not Euros.
However the limited supply of energy means that somebody has to end up with less than they would otherwise like. If we don’t do anything else, then price will do the physical rationing for us, and the poor will be without energy this winter.
We are in a war situation, yet nobody is talking about rationing. Why not?
Just how is someone on minimum wage supposed to pay these huge increases?
Their estimate for the cost by Janurary has gone up by nearly £400 in just the last two weeks; I’ll take this ‘forecast’ with a ton of salt, and predict that by the end of August they’ll be talking about the cap being closer to £4700. It’s beginning to feel like an attempt at anchoring.
What a fucking joke.
Whats absurd is how much the STANDING charge is going up in these circumstances. There is literally no way around the bills increase because we are being charged a fortune simply for the privilege of having an energy connection.
What is the point of Ofgen? Do we really need an agency just to lube us up before the energy companies fuck us?
I’m thinking of going to Dover & getting into an inflatable and moving to France
Why do I feel that Ofgem are soon going to be one of the most hated organisations in the country very soon…
What is the point of a ‘price cap’ if you’re just going to keep raising it?
Fuck me, if that Q1 2023 prediction pans out I’ve calculated that for our house we’ll be paying £363.25 a month (2 bed mid-terrace with 2 adults and 1 child). This is genuinely approaching unaffordable levels now.
To put this in percentage terms. Take your current monthly payment (presuming you’re *not* on a fixed tariff, and presuming that your current DD amount is based on *real usage figures* and not an estimated value which could be too high already) and then:
* Multiply it by 1.81 (81%) for October.
* Multiply that answer again by 1.19 (19%) for January.
That’s a 116% increase between now and January 2023.
Considering the absolute inaction of this Government, I genuinely don’t think I will ever even consider voting Conservative for the rest of my life. I am sure a lot of people will feel the same.
What even is this.
At this stage I would be quite happy to see the BP Head Office, Shell HQ, and OFGEM among others be the victims of some serious rioting.
Homelessness will skyrocket and the classic CON +1 will rear its ugly head on the tv screens of people who can even afford to run a tv. Tis but the Tory way.
Honestly though; the country is fucked. Wouldn’t be surprised if I’m on the streets before long.
Fucking hell.
One point beyond the obvious immediate issues here: this really underscores the importance of urgently reducing the UK’s reliance on gas, improving the insulation of homes, and massively increase the investment in green energy which the UK has good potential for. That would go a decent way to ensure things might not get as bad in the future – or at least not any worse.
Some leadership would be bloody useful at this point.
Reassurance is desperately needed.
Oh my god I literally cannot cope with the thought anymore. If I can’t afford electric then I end up not working as I wfh. Then I lose my job. Then my home. Then my parents and I are homeless (I let them move in with me so they could retire). I’m appalled the government think these price hikes are acceptable. I mean I know they’re tories but bloody hell.
Heaven forbid we put a cap on profits made by energy companies!
They aren’t going to go back to a measly £21b profit next year after they make £26b this year! The only way is up.
There was a time where I’d have been happy to be earning 2k~ after tax and deductions. That time has since passed.
The comment was deleted but if anyone is having suicidal thoughts over this please seek help.
It’s a shit situation but not one to end your life over. Please seek some help from debt charities, budgeting charities to even just help get your mind at ease and also contact some mental health charities.
https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/your-financial-situation/making-a-budget.aspx
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/budgeting/budget-planner
https://nationaldebtline.org/
https://www.debtadvicefoundation.org/
https://www.supportline.org.uk/
https://www.samaritans.org/
https://giveusashout.org/
Every single Tory voter is responsible for this. I hope they feel the effects of their decision tenfold.
I know 2 people already who have had their lives significantly changed for the worse by these energy costs, broken relationships through arguing over lack of money etc, and if they keep going up pretty much everyone from poor to lower middle class will find these prices intolerable.
I had a chuckle to myself when the thought crossed my mind, that the reason the French got a 4% rise, and we got a 50% rise, is because they protest ‘vigorously’ when their masters try to shaft them too hard. We in the UK however, we take it all like good serfs. ‘Please sir, may i have another’.
Charlie Chaplin, who had experienced brutal poverty when young, once said with tears in his eyes, ‘I hate the poor… why won’t they rise up’.
France put a 4% cap on energy bill rises. Because the govt own the gas and electricity supply.
France have it right. All strategic industries are government controlled,& not sold off. Blame Thatcher.
I feel sick. I just checked the ‘change tariff’ section on my Octopus Energy account and they’re BEST tariff for me is £5k a year. Last year I paid £800 a year. It makes me sick. I’m so worried. I’m obvs not changing but where does this end?! how high is this going to go?!