Huge UK energy bills would cause some to ‘starve or freeze’, Martin Lewis warns

theguardian.com:

Some of the poorest people in the UK will “simply starve or freeze,” as a result of rocketing energy prices, consumer expert Martin Lewis has warned, as he urged Rishi Sunak to take action at his spring statement.

Lewis said energy bills for an average household, already set to rise to £1,971 in April, could hit £3,000 in October, when the regulator Ofgem next sets the price cap. “That’s my conservative guess: not the worst case,” he said.

“I think people are going to feel worse than they have for a long time this year. When your energy bill comes in and it’s £3,000 for a year instead of £800, nobody feels good.”

In an interview with the Guardian, the founder of the MoneySavingExpert website gave a stark assessment of the potential effects of such a rapid increase, when many families are already struggling, and inflation is running at a 30-year high.

“When you start to have absolute poverty, which is what we’re going to be talking about with this, when you start to have panic, and a nihilistic feeling of the future, when our charity services start to be swamped … then I think you have to get to the point where you have to question what the impact on wider society is, because you know that extreme poverty causes civil unrest,” he said.

“I hope we are not there yet, and I hope we won’t get there,” he added, but called on Sunak to offer, “something that gives people peace of mind that they will survive – and I use that language deliberately”.

The chancellor announced a package of measures last month to soften the blow of surging energy costs, including a £150 council tax rebate for homes in bands A-D, and a £200 discount on bills in October, which will be repaid with higher bills in future years.

Sunak is holding the line against