They are set to cost Britons more than two months’ wages next year, union body warns
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Energy bills in the United Kingdom are expected to cost more than two months of average take-home pay in 2023, according to a new report published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Friday.
The TUC says the average take-home pay (after tax) will be £2,054 per month in 2023 based on the Bank of England forecasts. “So, at £4,108 ($5,000), two months’ pay will be less than the £4,200 ($5,100) predicted cost of energy bills per household in 2023.”
The latest forecast, issued by the UK independent energy consultancy Auxilione, is even more grim, predicting energy bills will hit £5,000 (nearly $6,100) next year.
The union body called for a series of measures to stop the cost-of-living crisis this winter, describing it as an “emergency of pandemic scale.” The suggested measures include canceling the October energy-price cap increase, bringing forward the annual increase in the national minimum wage from next April to October, and funding pay rises for public sector workers that keep up with inflation.
“No one should struggle to get by in one of the richest countries in the world,” TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said, adding: “But up and down the country, millions of families are being pushed to the brink by eyewatering energy bills. With prices set to skyrocket even further, it’s time to say enough is enough.”
She went on to stress that “Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak need to wake up to the size of this crisis. This requires a pandemic-scale intervention.”
In an earlier report on Thursday, the union body projected that the UK is facing the steepest real wages drop in a century. Living standards are forecast to plunge by a staggering 7.75% by the end of the year as pay increases fail to keep up with inflation.
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