Customers in the UK looking for cheaper energy bills were advised to submit cash indications online before the 54% increase in the average annual bill on Friday rose to £ 1,971, putting unprecedented pressure on supplier websites. The cash reading page of British Gas, one of the UK’s largest suppliers, received an error message on Friday morning, while E.ON and EDF were also experiencing downtime. Households have been facing multiple price increases since April 1, from city taxes and VAT on pints to broadband and telephone bills, all exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis, with inflation forecast to reach a 40-year high this year. As snow and hail fell across the UK this week, families and retirees said they had to turn off the heating and disconnect the broadband in order to afford the rising cost of food. However, those who have prepaid meters and stop using them will still find that they run out of gas and electricity bills due to increasing weekly charges of up to 15 6.15, even though they do not have electricity for heating, light or cooking. From today, prepaid meters that run out of money and are disconnected from electricity or gas will find that their electricity meter will still cost 3.53 £ per week and the gas meter at 2.62 £ – 6.15 £ per week to avoid heat, light or cooking. – Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) April 1, 2022 A one-page script on British Gas. Photo: PA The Resolution Foundation’s think tank said the number of English households in “fuel stress” doubled overnight, from 2.5 million to 5 million. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called for an emergency budget to help working families on the brink of extinction, with Citizens Advice estimating that some 5 million people will not be able to pay their energy bills this month. The TUC said the measures announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in a statement last spring were “sadly inadequate” as UK households faced the biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s. “People should not be struggling to make ends meet, but millions of families have been pushed to the brink of rapid bills and rising inflation,” said Frances O’Grady, secretary general of the TUC. “This is an emergency for living standards. Risi Sunak must come to parliament and present an extraordinary budget. We need a proper financial support package for families. Britain has been facing the worst standard of living crisis in generations. “We need an emergency budget to reduce energy bills and boost salaries, universal credit and pensions.” Subscribe to the daily Business Today email or follow the Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk Energy bills will rise 10 times faster than wages this year, the TUC said, as it joined the Labor Party, demanding an unexpected tax on the billions in profits made by oil and gas companies to pay for the proposed bailout package. “People do not want a revolution, they want to know how to pay their energy bills,” Labor leader Keir Starmer said in an interview Friday morning. Citizens Advice has warned that the number of people unable to pay their energy bills will rise to one in four in the UK, over 14 million, if the energy ceiling is raised by October. Experts say the war in Ukraine could lead to annual bills of 000 3,000 in the next price cap decision. “We understand that people are struggling with the rising cost of living – we can not protect everyone from the global challenges we face, but we are putting billions of pounds back into the pockets of hardworking families across the UK,” a government spokesman said. “We are taking action worth more than 22 22 billion next fiscal year to help people with energy bill costs and ensure that people keep more of their money.”
