‘Consigned to poverty’: Millions of families set to face years of hardship following energy price hike

‘Once you put people in a situation where they are having to chose fuel or food, the impact of that is lasting and it’s catastrophic’

Feeling the pinch: we spoke to those contemplating a fall in their living standards (PA)

The immediate question facing many families following Thursday’s massive energy price rise will be a nightmarishly simple one, says Helen Sephton: food or fuel.

But this ghastly dilemma, she warns, will merely be the start.

“What’s happened today is going to consign so many people to poverty for years to come,” she says. “We will see people falling into the poverty trap when their next energy bill comes through the door, and they might not ever escape. It’s that serious.”

As the managing director of The Project – one of Birmingham’s biggest homeless prevention charities – Sephton has long been on the front line of the UK’s fast-growing cost-of-living crisis.

Now, after Ofgem gave the green light for energy bills to rise by 54 per cent on Thursday – an average £693 a year more for households – she reckons the consequences will be far more expansive and far longer lasting than anyone in government is currently acknowledging.

Poorer long-term health, lower educational achievements and shorter lives for a greater number of people will all follow, she reckons. Those already in fuel poverty will be walloped with unprecedented force. People currently just about managing will find themselves falling off the economic cliff. Even taking into account chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement that every household will receive a (repayable) £200 rebate to cushion the blow, some 5 million families will still fall into fuel stress in April, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.

“Once you put people in a situation where they are having to choose fuel or food, the impact of that is lasting and it’s catastrophic,” says Sephton. “Because whichever of those two you go without, it creates more issues.”

Families that choose to reduce heating leave themselves vulnerable to illness and their homes at risk of mould and damp. Those that opt to reduce eating, invariably see their physical and mental health decline. Children fall behind at school because they struggle to concentrate on empty stomachs or do homework in freezing cold rooms. More stress is placed on the services that families turn to for support. It becomes a vicious circle that becomes in increasingly difficult to break.

“Families spend all their money and energy on just trying to meet the basic needs,” says Sephton. “So, they have no opportunity to thrive. They have to focus on getting by day-to-day which means there is no room to look up and try to improve their long-term situation”

The Project – which is based in Northfield, one of the country’s most deprived areas – is now expecting an influx of new users over the next six months. “We speak with other charities,” she says. “This is the feeling everywhere. There is a huge wave coming.”

‘Politicians have no idea how some of us live’: Bradford single mother Kirsty Ferguson (Supplied)

Some 125 miles away in Bradford, Kirsty Ferguson is just one of the millions of people who fear being caught up in that very wave.

The single mother-of-two says that, if she cuts down on luxuries, she should be able to ride out rising living costs.

What are luxuries? “Christmas presents,” she answers. “Birthdays, treats for the kids, a holiday. My clothes. If I need anything I can buy it second hand. That’s fine.”

The 43-year-old lives in a fully insulated Seventies house and her two children – boys aged 14 and 12 – have both been primed to prepare for some cut backs.

“But it’s little things that get you,” she says. “Lads that age, they want to be wearing the same brands as their mates. It’s such a big thing for them. To always have to say no, when you can’t ever say yes, you feel like you’re not meeting their social needs.”

Does she think anyone in the government understands these kind of hardships? A laugh.

“I think they have no idea how some of us live,” the 43-year-old youth worker replies. “Most of them went to public school, Oxbridge, then straight into good jobs. They have been protected from reality their whole lives.”

Of Sunak’s plan to give all households a £200 rebate she is distinctly unimpressed. She feels the money should be targeted to those that need it most rather than simply being handed out to everyone. “The way he’s doing it, it’s equal, but it’s not actually fair,” she says. “Maybe I’m just an old lefty.”

Doncaster market trader Ian Coldwell, pictured with wife Sue, is looking at higher bills at home and reduced takings at work (The Independent)

That’s not a description that Doncaster market trader Ian Coldwell would ever use about himself. But the 55-year-old, like Ferguson and Sephton, is equally worried about the months ahead.

He should, he reckons, be able to just about cope with the hiked bills – “although I might have to put the kid’s board up,” he notes of his grown-up children.

His concern, however, is the thought that others will suddenly have far less disposable income to spend at the market and, specifically, at his towels stall.

“That’s the knock-on effect of all this,” the father-of-three says. “I’m suddenly looking at higher bills at home and reduced takings at work, and I’m having to make those two ends meet. So, I’ll be having to spend less and then that hits other businesses.”

How bad does he think it could get? “Pretty rough,” he says. “I think we’re all going to suffer in one way or another.”