Many of us would have been extremely worried turning on the TV or radio this morning and seeing confirmation of a huge price hike for energy starting from this October.
Regulator Ofgem has announced from the 1 October the household energy cap bill will be a staggering £3,549 a year, up from the current £1,971 currently.
Money saving expert Martin Lewis has today released a calculator on his website which allows the British public to work out what bills they may be facing come the winter.
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The calculator – which is impossible to be 100 percent accurate, says the site – makes the prediction on how much annual gas and electric a household uses each year.
Households can input how much kilowatt-hour of gas and electric they use each month, or if that is not known, they can input how much they spend currently on gas and electric to see how much they may be set back in October.
The calculator says for more accurate results, it would be best to input your gas and electric usage, rather than how much you spend on it.
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Users of this calculator will then be asked to input the region they live in the UK as prices of energy can differ in different parts of the country.
The expected rise in cost of energy has been expected for some time, and could plunge more families into poverty this winter.
Energy prices have already been rising before this new price cap was announced as supply chains have been distributed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
As a result of Ofgem's announcement, the price of electricity will increase from 28p per kWh to 52p in October through to December. Gas will go up from 7p to 15p per kWh in October.
Current Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has been speaking about the huge rise in energy prices this morning, saying the government's help offered to families in this crisis is 'not enough' and that it has to do more.
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He added: "It is a difficult time, there is war on our continent. Very few people anticipated war; wars happen in far flung places.
"It is now here with us, we have to remain resilient."
Unless the new prime minister steps in with a new package that can help people pay their energy bills this winter, then the crisis looks set to get even worse.
According to forecasters, energy bills could top £4,000 come January, and it could get as high as £6,000 in 12 months' time.
Featured Image Credit: PA Images / Yuri Arcurs / Alamy
