This year is set to be a tougher one on the pockets of families around Britain due to increased bills and cost of living.
Inflation rose to 5.4% last month, the highest rate in nearly 30 years, while the Resolution Foundation warns households can expect to fork out an extra £1,200 this year.
Food and clothing is forecast to get more expensive. A National Insurance tax hike will be slapped onto households from April.
Read more: Child benefit payment increase - what you need to know
An increase to energy, phone and internet bills will also add to money worries this year.
Below are six things that are set to increase in cost over the next 12 months.
How 2022 will get more expensive
According to the Office for Natiopnal Statistics, around two thirds of adults say their cost of living has increased in the past month.
Below are six things that are set to increase in cost over the next 12 months.
National Insurance increase
There will be a 1.25% increase in the National Insurance rate from April.
The increase, agreed last year, aims to pay for social care and NHS funding. An average earner will pay an extra £255 in taxes, under the increase. A person on £20,000 a year will pay an extra £130, those on £50,000 an extra £505. Those earning under £9,564 do not have to pay National Insurance, or the new levy.
There are calls to postpone or scrap the hike, in light of other rising costs this year.
Former housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said the Government should postpone a national insurance hike that he approved last year.
Mr Jenrick, who was in the position until September 2021, said the hike should be delayed and the Government should “exploit Britain’s gas reserves”.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said the Government was “turning its mind” to a cost of living crisis “lamentably slowly”.
“Alleviating the cost-of-living challenge requires us to confront hard realities,” he said.
“First, it means recognising the need for the Government to intervene to help those facing brutal decisions as to what they must do without. But these should be targeted measures that are focused on low- and middle-income families. The size of the state is already the largest in my lifetime, and growing.”
Food and clothing
Figures from December show retailers are already passing on increased costs to customers by raising prices. A Which? supermarket survey found shops were charging up to 9% in December 2022 for a similar basket of goods bought in January.
The ONS said food inflation reached 4.5% year-on-year in December and was 1.4% since November alone.
The biggest rises were seen for bread and cereals, as well as oil and fats and meat.
Retail prices index data reveals the price of lamb shot up by 5.7% over the month while staples such as fresh milk jumped 3%, bread was 2% higher and eggs lifted 1%.
In the fruit and vegetable aisles, some of the steepest price rises were for potatoes, up 2.1%, with processed veg seeing a 5.1% hike.
It is likely increases will continue throughout 2022, triggered by an increase in costs for supermarkets and retailers due to energy prices and logistic staffing struggles.
Chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, says in the Express: “Consumers may have noticed that their Christmas shop became a little more expensive in December.
"Not only did prices rise, but did so at a faster rate, especially in food."
She added: "The trajectory for consumer prices is very clear: they will continue to rise, and at a faster rate.
"Retailers can no longer absorb all the cost pressures arising from more expensive transportation, labour shortages, and rising commodity and global food prices.
"Consumers will already be harder pressed this year, with rising energy bills, the looming hike in national insurance, and more expensive mortgages.
Phone and broadband
Recent rises in home working, streaming and online gaming led to a demand for data, which is leading to price hikes.
BT will increase bills by more than 9% for many customers from the end of March, working out at an extra £3.50 a month or £42 a year.
BT says it has experienced a 90% rise in broadband usage since 2018 and a 70% increase on mobile usage since 2019, reports Manchester Evening News.
Which? suggests haggling with providers to try and get the best deals, with 46% of customers using the tactic, saving an average of £85 on broadband and £35 on mobile bills.
Lisa Barber, Which? home products and services editor, said: “With the cost of living soaring, it’s even more important to cut costs where you can.
“If you are happy with your current TV, broadband and mobile providers, don’t be afraid to haggle when your contract ends as it is easier than you might think and you could save a lot of money.
“If you are not happy with your provider or are looking to avoid a costly price hike, or your service is just not good enough, shop around and consider switching.”
Energy bills
Soaring prices mean bills are predicted to rise by around 50% from April, and another 50% jump could happen in November.
The price cap will jump from £1,277 to £1,865 in April, analysis by Cornwall Insights predicts. The price cap applies to around 15 million British households who have chosen to pay for their electricity on the open market rather than under fixed-price deals.
And if wholesale prices remain high, the cap could be raised again in October.
Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, the trade body for suppliers, said bills were expected to rise not just in April but again in October “if nothing changes” as the spike in wholesale gas prices fed through to domestic bills.
Addressing a media webinar on the energy bills crisis, Ms Pinchbeck said of the price rise: “We haven’t seen anything like this, not in my career or in any of the people who sit on my board.”
She said that although wholesale prices were expected to drop, “they are still three times higher than we expect to see at this time of the year” and described the situation as “enduring”.
Train and Metro tickets
Passengers on the national railway network face the highest ticket price increase in almost a decade. Tickets in England will increase by as much as 3.8% from March, the highest jump since January 2013.
Usually, rail ticket prices increase in January, but this year it has been moved to April due to the pandemic.
Nexus will raise ticket prices on the Tyne Wear Metro too.
Paper single and day tickets will increase by up to 9.5%. Weekly, monthly and annual tickets will increase by up to 3.5%.
Single and day ticket prices will be frozen for those who use top up PAYG cards on the Metro.
Second-hand cars
A shortage of new cars caused by a run on computer chips is leading to higher demand for used cars.
Used car prices rose by up to 4.6% between September 2021 and October 2021. By November, the cost rose by 27.1% in a year.
The demand means the cost of a used car is likely to continue going up, especially as more people return to the office after working from home guidance ends.
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