Just as a heads up, you are going to see a LOT of fundraisers coming up in winter for people in the UK to make energy bills. This has been absolutely massive on UKPol twitter but I don't see it coming up here much at all, so, I'm just kind of passing it on.
The long and short of it is the energy price cap - the maximum that can be charged to customers for a specific type of energy contract (dual-fuel, so gas and electric, on a 'typical usage', on a fixed rate contract) - is going up. And it's going up a lot. Way above what people can afford.
It's estimated by January, that price cap might be as high as £5,000 ($6,000) a year, or over £400 ($490) a month. Last October, that cap was only £1,200 ($1450). For a single person, that's almost a quarter of your salary on fuel alone. For some comparisons, my mom only makes £19,000 a year ($23,000) and I only make £13,000 ($15,000)
And that's on a very specific, very secure contract. I use a top-up meter, which often charges way more than we would on a fixed-rate contract, and it's all the poorest households who use top-up meters instead of contracts. Add to that the cost for disabled people to keep equipment running, or other confounding factors, and many, many, many people in the UK are just not going to be able to afford to even keep a light on, never mind cook or heat their homes.
No lights, no cooking, no refridgeration, no heating, no internet, nothing.
This is a national emergancy, and absolutely nothing is being done by our government because it's too busy suffocating on internal squabbling. OFGEM (The energy regulator) won't do anything because of it's own fuck-ups, resulting in it being more interested in keeping profits flowing for energy companies than protecting consumers.
It's going to be a very, very cold, dark, hard winter for people in the UK. If you are in the UK and want to do something to help, there is a Consumer Strike being organised by a group called Don't Pay UK. Get involved if you can, and spread the word if you cant.
