One-in-four Britons predicted to be unable to afford energy bills in October

Citizens Advice estimates that millions of people are not eligible for the government’s targeted support

As UK’s energy crisis deepens new analysis finds that one-in-four people in the UK will not be able to pay for energy bills in October, when the new price cap will come into force.

Citizens Advice suggests in January, when new price hikes are expected to come in, this figure could jump to one-in-three.

The charity notes that more than half of the people predicted to be unable to pay their energy bills are not currently eligible for the government’s targeted support to people on means-tested benefits.

Most of these households are active workforce and earn less than £30,000 a year, the analysis suggests.

A few days ago, an Ipsos survey found that two-thirds of voters believed the government was not doing enough to help people with soaring energy bills.

On Monday, Labour party leader Keir Starmer proposed freezing the energy price cap at current levels.

Today, the Greens said nationalising the big five energy companies was a necessary step to avert the coming “catastrophe” this winter.

The plan for the nationalisation of energy firms was also proposed by the TUC last month – it estimated that taking the Big Five energy retail firms into public ownership would cost £2.85 billion, less than the estimated £2.7 billion cost of energy company bailouts so far.

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