Reading the news this week is like "It works out slightly cheaper to boil water on a gas hob than using an electric kettle - as long as you boil only the amount you need, use a lid and switch off the hob as soon as it has boiled."
Great. Sound. Got it. I’ll make my coffee in a pan and measure the amount first.
"Wash clothes at 30° and ditch the tumble dryer." Fab. Ok. So I just throw it all on the radiators instead now?
"Turning the lights off when you leave a room - this could save you £20 per year!" Lovely! One bottle of delicious orange wine per year. Sounds fair.
READ MORE: How you can qualify for free NHS prescriptions
Is it cheaper to have a bath or a shower? I’m guessing it’s a bath, as long as the water is lukewarm and you only use enough to cover your bum. Don’t forget to unplug your chargers that aren’t being used and never ever leave monitors on standby. Ok. Cool. A quick 10 minutes running round unplugging everything before I go to work is doable. "SONNY!!! Turn that bloody monitor off!"
This week, the government allowed the price of energy to rise by up to 54% in response to rising fossil fuel costs. Putting an adequate standard of living at risk for millions. Martin Lewis, the founder of Money Saving Expert says he can’t do much to help us if we’ve already budgeted as much as we can. According to Carbon Brief, energy prices in the UK are almost £2.5 billion pounds higher than they would have been, if climate policies had not been scrapped over the last decade. Wonderful!
Boris helpfully says the only way to get out of poverty is to work. But what if you are working?! With wages failing to keep up with inflation, rents skyrocket high and the current food, fuel and energy prices, there’s not much “fun money” going around anymore. So what are you working for?!
Surely this is the year we should finally be able to go on holiday. But instead we can’t afford to live? Life suddenly seems very unfair and hopeless to a lot of people.
And what does all this poverty news do for our moods? You only have to drive on the roads, or nip into your local Tesco, to see how stressed everyone already is. It’s prickly out there!
Is all the hype around the subject simply 'poverty porn'? After all, it is our culture to relish in the idea of somebody having a little bit less than us, isn’t it? Perhaps we’ll soon adjust to the new bill and forget about it, like everything else. We’ll look back fondly at the memory of reasonably priced energy, just like the 10p Freddos.
But if you are seriously affected by the price hike, what practical help is out there? I spoke with the very lovely and helpful Jaroslava Hurtikova from Citizens Advice, to find out.
Citizens Advice has an entire office dedicated to helping people with their fuel bills. They have relationships with lots of the large providers and can even write off some debt you may have with your supplier, following an assessment of your finances. In 2021/2022, Citizens Advice supported 39,463 unique clients across the country with nearly 386,000 issues. Out of that, over 22,000 have been advised on fuel debts.
Before our conversation I had no idea you could only use a food bank once. The media would have us believe that people are living off them. Like, that’s where they do their shopping. Nor did I know that you need a voucher or referral from either your GP, social worker, Citizens Advice or the Job Centre, to even be able to approach a food bank! What a palaver.
If you’re struggling to buy food. Here’s more details about how to access a food bank. If you need help paying your fuel bills, there are schemes and grants available and you can find out more here. If you’re struggling to top up your prepayment meter, you can access a fuel voucher here.
If you’re struggling with living costs, one suggestion is to check that you’re receiving the correct child maintenance. But we already know how that goes. Use one of these government recommended benefits calculators to check that you’re receiving all the help you possibly can.
Check here if your children qualify for free school meals or help with school travel costs - school bus fares are a sting! Click here if you need help with debt.
Citizens Advice recommend you speak to someone as soon as possible, rather than bury your head in the sand. Easier said than done sometimes, I know. But there really is no problem that can’t be solved, no matter how huge it seems right now.
If you really can’t face speaking on the phone to someone, you can access their web chat via their website. Citizens Advice really are lovely people who genuinely want best for you. So please make sure you reach out to them if you need to.
Get the top stories straight to your inbox by signing up for one of our free newsletters
