So the news we’ve all been waiting for came through this morning – energy bills will go up 80% in October and the energy price cap is rising to £3,549! According to money guru Martin Lewis, that means bills rising to £4,460 on a typical bill from October to April! The figure expected before the announcement was £2,800. The only answer to that is WTF! Who on earth is going to be able to accommodate this huge price rise assuming other costs are constant (which they aren’t thanks to around 10% inflation)?
What does this mean for our society?
It is totally ridiculous and would be laughable in a scary-nervous-that’s-not-even-funny-kind of way if it weren’t so bloody tragic. How are older people going to cope? My dad’s 85 and on a state pension, where is he magically going to get the extra hundreds of pounds to pay his bills? What about families with young children? How are they going to keep their kids safe during the winter – will it come down to be warm or be fed like people are saying?
How are we here? While the Tories are fighting among themselves about who is going to lead the country, it seems we’ve all been left to hang. There don’t seem to be any policies in place to help people or curb price rises. I know they have to decide on a leader, but frankly there are more pressing and important issues at stake here – and neither candidate is spelling out practical steps for dealing with this nightmare. And don’t tell me there will be payments to help, because I know that, but they won’t be anywhere near enough.
Future failings
And while I’m on the subject of how are we all here, while we ponder that, we won’t be in a few months – from January the energy price cap is expected to rise to £5,386. Considering today’s rise is so much more than was expected, it doesn’t instil much confidence in the forecast January figures being correct, even if people could afford them!
The powers that be need to deliver solutions to help the country and they need to deliver them quickly. By January the country could be on its knees and too cold to care – or we could be saying enough is enough! There’s only so far people will be pushed – can be pushed.
As Bob Dylan sang: “the times, they are a-changin”
Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert fame is one person I really rate when it comes to personal finance and the cost of living – because he talks sense. Here are his latest thoughts on the current situation.