{"id":17105,"date":"2022-08-18T11:01:21","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T07:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/?p=17105"},"modified":"2022-08-22T09:38:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T05:38:11","slug":"13-million-britons-will-be-pushed-into-debt-by-energy-price-cap-rise-government-warned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/13-million-britons-will-be-pushed-into-debt-by-energy-price-cap-rise-government-warned\/","title":{"rendered":"13 million Britons will be pushed into debt by energy price cap rise, government warned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One in four won\u2019t be able to afford bills, says Citizens Advice \u2013 as PM accused of going \u2018missing in action\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britons face a \u201cliving nightmare\u201d as inflation jumps above 10 per cent for the first time in 40 years, pushing millions into debt from higher bills and leaving homeowners facing another surge in mortgage payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One in four consumers will not be able to afford their gas and electricity bills when the energy price cap rises in October, according to Citizens Advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It warned of a \u201cwinter of despair\u201d for 13 million people would be pushed into debt when annual energy bills<\/a> are allowed to rocket to \u00a33,600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unison assistant general secretary Jon Richards said the cost of living crisis \u201chas become a living nightmare for millions of working people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economists now predict the Bank of England will announce a second 0.5 percentage-point rate rise within weeks, which would add another \u00a3700 a year to interest payments on a \u00a3250,000 mortgage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tory peer Stuart Rose accused Boris Johnson<\/a> of going on \u201cshore leave\u201d while Britain hurtles towards recession, saying the government had been \u201cvery, very slow\u201d in tackling the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have some action,\u201d the Asda boss said. \u201cThe captain of the ship is on shore leave, right \u2013 nobody\u2019s in charge at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charities pleaded with the government to expand emergency payments, as inflation reached a four-decade high of 10.1 per cent on Wednesday and heaped more pressure on those struggling\u00a0with bills and food prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s becoming increasingly clear that skyrocketing prices will swallow up all of the help that has been announced so far,\u201d said Citizens Advice chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty as she called for more support for the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day that goes by without a plan is another day without reassurance for people who desperately need it. We urgently need further support, otherwise we risk a winter of despair for millions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse denied government inaction. \u201cThis idea that we\u2019re all just sitting on our hands eating buns and picking our noses is not true,\u201d he told Times Radio. But he said it would be up to Mr Johnson\u2019s successor to decide what to do about rising bills. \u201cWe are putting the government on a war footing, if you like, so that a new prime minister in just a couple of weeks\u2019 time now is able to make some quick decisions,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Liz Truss<\/a>, the Tory leadership favourite, is yet to commit to any additional direct payments to help the public with huge hikes in energy bills expected from October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rishi Sunak<\/a> \u2013 who has said he will commit around \u00a35bn in additional payments \u2013 said it would be a \u201cmoral failure\u201d not to offer more help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Tory candidates, battling it out to succeed Mr Johnson at No 10 on 6 September, have rejected Labour\u2019s proposal to freeze the energy price cap through the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour\u2019s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government did not get the scale of the crisis and the prime minister was \u201cmissing in action\u201d. She added: \u201cThey have just disappeared. It\u2019s totally irresponsible for the prime minister and the chancellor not to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Johnson has been accused of treating his final weeks in office as \u201cone big party\u201d after he headed off to Greece for a week \u2013 his second holiday in a fortnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 10.1 per cent inflation figure \u2013 which showed food and non-alcoholic beverage prices increase by 12.7 per cent \u2013 represents the biggest jump in the cost of living since February 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Resolution Foundation said the poorest tenth of households would be the worst hit, facing an inflation rate of 10.9 per cent while the richest tenth faced inflation of only 9.4 per cent. The think tank said the next PM\u2019s priority should be \u201ctargeted support to low- and middle-income households\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the poorest fifth of households could face a staggering inflation rate of 18 per cent by October, because they spend a bigger proportion of their income on energy and food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocio Concha, director\u00a0of\u00a0policy at Which?, said the latest figures make clear that \u201cmillions of people face a dire financial situation in the months ahead \u2026 it\u2019s clear that the current level\u00a0of\u00a0cost of living\u00a0government help will not be sufficient\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TUC general secretary Frances O\u2019Grady called for a price cap freeze and renationalisation of energy firms to deal with the \u201cemergency\u201d. Unison assistant general secretary\u00a0Jon Richards said above-inflation pay rises \u201care essential to rescue families on the brink\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens Advice centres have been overwhelmed with requests for help in recent months and food-bank managers have also told\u00a0The Independent\u00a0<\/em>some people could not afford to top up their pre-paid meters \u2013 doing without gas and electricity for several days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One in four won\u2019t be able to afford bills, says Citizens Advice \u2013 as PM accused of going \u2018missing in action\u2019 Britons face a \u201cliving nightmare\u201d as inflation jumps above 10 per cent for the first time in 40 years, pushing millions into debt from higher bills and leaving homeowners facing another surge in mortgage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17107,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17105\/revisions\/17107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}