Shirley Daniels, a retired carer who spoke to the BBC, said she had “never been in debt in my life” and was adamant that she would do everything to avoid falling into that problem in her later years. She said she will “just cut back on food” and resort to eating “a tin of soup and a roll”, hoping that that will be enough to keep her warm and fed. It comes as Ofgem has confirmed an 80.06 percent rise in the energy price cap, sending the average household’s yearly bill from £1,971 to £3,549 from October.
Ms Daniels said: “Well, if I can’t afford it, I will not put [the heating] on because I won’t get into debt. I have never been in debt in my life.
“I’ll just cut back on food as well if I have to. I’d have a tin of soup and roll and hopefully that will warm me up.”
Former care worker Marina, stifling tears, said that she lives in “fear everyday” thinking about how she will be able to pay her bills.
She said: “To actually fear everyday how you are meant to live, it is just something else. I did not think I would get to this age and be worried about things like this. I just figured I was going to be normal.”
The cap will come into effect for around 24 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on default energy tariffs on October 1, and will remain in place until December 31, when it will be adjusted again.
The 4.5 million prepayment meter customers, who are often the most vulnerable and already in fuel poverty, will see an even more punishing increase, with their average annual bill set to go up to £3,608.
Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned of the hardship energy prices will cause this winter and urged the incoming Prime Minister and new Cabinet “to provide an additional and urgent response to continued surging energy prices”.
The regulator said the increase reflected the continued rise in global wholesale gas prices, which began to surge as the world unlocked from the Covid pandemic, and had been driven still higher to record levels by Russia slowly switching off gas supplies to Europe.
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Mr Brearley said: “We know the massive impact this price cap increase will have on households across Britain and the difficult decisions consumers will now have to make. I talk to customers regularly and I know that today’s news will be very worrying for many.
“The price of energy has reached record levels driven by an aggressive economic act by the Russian state. They have slowly and deliberately turned off the gas supplies to Europe causing harm to our households, businesses and wider economy. Ofgem has no choice but to reflect these cost increases in the price cap.
“The Government support package is delivering help right now, but it’s clear the new Prime Minister will need to act further to tackle the impact of the price rises that are coming in October and next year.
“We are working with ministers, consumer groups and industry on a set of options for the incoming Prime Minister that will require urgent action. The response will need to match the scale of the crisis we have before us. With the right support in place and with regulator, Government, industry and consumers working together, we can find a way through this.”
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