In April households across Wales will have to pay more for essentials with household bills, council tax and national insurance all set to increase.
On February 3, it was announced that the UK price cap, set by regulator Ofgem, would increase meaning that gas and electricity bills would go up by 54%.
Inflation meant that the cost of living has risen by up to 5.4% in the 12 months to December - the highest rate of increase in 30 years. And on top of this, national insurance will rise by 1.25% from April to pay for the NHS and social care.
Here are all the bills that are rising in Wales from April 1, 2022.
Read more: Why are gas and electricity prices rising so much?
Household Bills
Water
Water UK, which represents and works with the major water and sewerage service providers, has announced that the average UK Water bill will move from £412 to £419 over the course of the 2022/23 financial year.
This means that the average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales could rise by £7 from April.
Welsh Water has warned that households will see a rise in their water bills in 2022 and 2023. The not for profit company has confirmed that most of its household customers will see an increase in their typical water and wastewater bills of between 3.8% and 6.6% from April.
This is due to the significant increase in the rate of inflation, in particular the rising costs of power, chemicals and the materials needed to produce drinking water and treat wastewater.
Welsh Water’s Chief Financial Officer, Mike Davis, has encouraged customers who might be struggling during these difficult times to contact Welsh Water.
He said: "The cost of many supplies which are essential to our business has increased significantly over the past 12 months. Such increases are being witnessed across all sectors and we are not immune to these pressures. However, we’re working as hard as we can to limit the impact on our customers and keep increases as low as possible.
"This is why we are making support available for an extra 54,000 vulnerable customers, in addition to the 130,000 who already benefit from the different ways we help customers to pay their bills. We would encourage all customers who are struggling to make ends meet at this difficult time to contact us to see what support we can provide."
Hafren Dyfrdwy's average water bill could increase by 6% in April, with bills usually at £315 in 2021/22, but could be £334 in 2022/23.
Severn Trent's average water bills could increase by 7.2% in April - bills were usually £363 in 2021/22 but could rise to £389 in 2022/23.
Broadband and Mobile Phone
Due to inflation, customers could be facing a rise in the prices of their broadband and mobile phone contracts.
BT, EE Broadband, Plusnet, Vodafone and John Lewis Broadband will charge Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is 5.4%, with an additional 3.9%. TalkTalk will charge CPI and an extra 3.7% in April.
Customers with Sky broadband have already seen an increase since April 1, 2021 for its broadband. From May 1, its home phone customers will also see an increase which will cap at a maximum of £72 a year. Unlike its competitors, Sky sets the amount in pounds rather than percentage.
Similar to Sky, Virgin Media has announced that a lot of its broadband customers will face an increase of around £56 per year, which is on average around £4.70 a month. Virgin customers have until 15 February to cancel their contract or switch to a different service.
BT Mobile, EE, Plusnet Mobile and Vodafone will be hiking prices at the CPI rate plus 3.9%, while ID Mobile, O2 and Virgin Mobile link their prices to the retail prices index (RPI), which is 7.1%.
Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile currently do not raise their prices in line with inflation. GiffGaff, Smarty, Utility Warehouse, Voxi and Lebara, which are flexible rolling contract providers, do not factor automatic price rises into their plans.
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Energy Bills
Energy bills will rise by 54% this April.
For an average family home on a default tariff paying by direct debit, their annual bill will rise by £693 to £1,971. For lower-income households using prepayment meters will see an increase of £708 from £1,309 to £2,017.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced on Thursday that the UK Government would introduce rebates of up to £350 to help those struggling to make ends meet due to increasing gas and electricity bills in England.
However, there could be a different rollout in Wales. The UK Government says devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will get a total of £565 million of Barnett funding as a result of the Council Tax Energy Rebate in England. Wales will get £175m. The devolved administrations will be able to choose whether to spend this funding this year or next year.
At the beginning of February, the Welsh Government announced that the most vulnerable can now get £200 towards fuel bills as a way to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Following the announcement, Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt said: "We’re going to extend support to households by doubling the Winter Fuel Support Scheme payment. We’re increasing the £100 payment to £200 and this will be available to new applicants and retrospectively paid to those who have applied already.
"This additional £100 increase will go some way to helping the most vulnerable in our society to pay their fuel bills during this difficult time and I’m determined to do all we can to continue to support the people of Wales through the cost of living crisis."
Mortgage rates
In February, the Bank of England raised its base rate from 0.25% to 0.5%.
Homeowners will not have to pay more if they are on a fixed-rate mortgage deal, as the rate was agreed upon for a certain period of time. However once the deal ends, rates could be higher than they were on a fixed rate.
Mortgage lenders such as Nationwide and Santander announced they were responding to the increase by putting up the cost of bank rate-linked mortgage deals and their standard variable rate (SVR) of lending by 0.15%, which came into effect in February.
Council Tax
The average band D council tax for Wales for 2021-22 is £1,731. This includes £1,403 for county councils, £290 for police and £39 for community councils. Band D figures for billing authorities, including police and community councils, vary from £1,504 in Pembrokeshire to £2,078 in Blaenau Gwent.
County council increases in band D council tax for 2021-22 average £49 or 3.5% over the previous year. Police increases average £15 or 5.5%. These increases combine to produce an average band D rise of £64 or 3.8%.
Wrexham has the largest overall band D percentage increase of 6.4%. Rhondda Cynon Taf has the smallest overall band D percentage increase of 3.0%.
Dyfed Powys Police have the largest band D increase of 5.8%. North Wales Police have the smallest band D increase of 5.1%.
In England, the estimated Band D percentage increase is 4.2%. Welsh average band D council tax is 91% of the latest estimated figure of £1,895 for England.
Depending on your circumstances, you could get your bill reduced. But this depends on:
- Where you live as each council runs its own scheme and with different rules
- Your circumstances, including number of children, benefits, residency status
- Your household income, including savings, pension and a partner’s income
- If your children or other adults live with you
National Insurance
National Insurance is a tax on earnings paid by employees, employers and the self-employed who pay it on their profits.
From April, the rate of National Insurance contributions that we will pay will change for a year. The amount we contribute will increase by 1.25% points, which will be spent on the NHS and social care across the UK.
If you earn less than £9,564 a year, you do not have to pay National Insurance and the new levy does not apply to you.
The Salary and new National Insurance Contribution works like this:
- £20,000 - will pay an extra £130 a year (£10.80 per month)
- £30,000 - will pay an extra £255 a year (£21.25 per month)
- £50,000 - will pay an extra £505 a year (£45.80 per month)
- £80,000 - will pay an extra £880 a year (£73.33 per month)
- £100,000 - will pay an extra £1,130 a year (£94.16 per month)
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