Energy price cap hike as pensioners lose winter fuel payment show Labour doesn’t care people will die this winter

Things are about to get inordinately worse for millions of people this winter. That’s because, if the new Labour Party government cutting the winter fuel payment for the majority of pensioners wasn’t bad enough, now, energy regulator Ofgem has announced the latest energy price cap. As analysts had predicted, Ofgem is raising this in October – so energy bills will shoot up this winter.

Energy price cap to rise this winter

UK regulator Ofgem has announced a higher energy price cap for this winter – meaning energy bills will rise. Specifically, it has said that:

Between 1 October to 31 December 2024 the energy price cap is set at £1,717 per year for a typical household who use electricity and gas and pay by Direct Debit. This is an increase of 10% compared to the cap set between 1 July to 30 September 2024 (£1,568).

This is lower than the same period last year. Crucially however, as the End Fuel Poverty Coalition pointed out, it means energy bills will still be well above pre-pandemic prices:

#Energy bills 65% above pre-crisis levels.
Supplier profits allowed to increase 11%.

The Government must act to:
– End energy debt
– Extend the Household Support Fund
– Expand Warm Home Discounts
– Evolve standing charges
And reverse the Winter Fuel Payment axe. https://t.co/oMs47eXJfe

— End Fuel Poverty Coalition (@EndFuelPoverty) August 23, 2024

Nonprofit National Energy Action calculated how many more households the rise will plunge into fuel poverty this winter:

Today @Ofgem revealed that energy bills will rise by £149 a year. Our figures show that this will put an extra 400,000 households into #FuelPoverty, with 6 million UK households forced to choose between falling into debt or going cold throughout winter. pic.twitter.com/JgezsY3xpI

— National Energy Action (@NEA_UKCharity) August 23, 2024

As ever, this will hit the most vulnerable households hardest. Notably, the £1,717 energy price cap is just the amount an average household’s bills will rise. It means in reality, bills will actually increase by a lot more than this. In particular, this applies to those whose typical energy bill sits above this average. Because what really matters is how much the unit price – the price per kilowatt hour of energy – the cost is going up by. 

Of course, this includes chronically ill and disabled people who typically have greater energy needs for aids and equipment to help manage their conditions. Alongside this, people in less energy efficient housing will invariably pay more for their fuel costs as well. Naturally, many pensioners will also be among those with larger energy demands too.

Winter fuel payment double-whammy

Compounding all this is the government’s move to cut the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners. The Canary already highlighted some of the glaring issues with it, including that:

pensioners can be living above what the government classes as income poor, but still experience fuel poverty. This is because there’s a weak correlation between fuel poverty and income deprivation.

Now, fuel poor pensioners on higher incomes will lose out twice. First, the government will strip them of up to £600 in winter fuel allowance. Once again, this will largely be chronically ill and disabled pensioners, and those living in inefficient homes. Then, their energy bills will shoot up again –  all while they now have less income for it.

On top of this, as we also detailed, over 800,000 people who could claim means-tested benefits like pension credits, are not doing so. his means they probably now won’t be entitled to the winter fuel payment either.

Labour’s late-hour publicity drive to boost uptake isn’t going to do a lot of good either. That’s because, as the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has also underscored, the DWP is telling people their applications could take nine weeks to even process.

All this is to say, now the new Labour government will reprise the role of its Tory predecessors and force more fuel poor households to choose between heating and eating this winter.

Brearley’s bitter cold and callous profit agenda

Of course, you know who won’t be feeling the cold callous bite of the new government this winter? The corporate capitalist energy bosses making a (quite literal) killing off of the energy price cap hike. Though, as CEO of Ofgem Jonathan Brearley will tell you, it’s all only for a “small profit”:

The head of Ofgem, which boasts its job is to protect energy customers, explains its increasing bills by 10% because it has to allow energy companies to make a small profit.

Last year British Gas profits increased 10 fold to £750m. pic.twitter.com/8mYnScxuLg

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 23, 2024

Good Morning Britain’s (GMB) Adil Ray helpfully listed what this had meant in monetary terms for energy company bosses in the last year:

Adil Ray reading out the huge profits made by the profiteering energy companies and the massive salaries paid to fat cat bosses, while the head of Ofgem nods along. Well done Adil #GMB pic.twitter.com/uhU46dfzzE

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 23, 2024

Ray wasn’t the only one highlighting the astounding hypocrisy and gall of Brearley’s GMB bluster:

BP made 11 billion
Shell made 22 billion
British gas profit is up 10 fold.
Octopus up 98%
CEO wages are the highest they’ve ever been.

Simply daylight robbery and profiteering.

— PJ (@PJ_Jenno) August 23, 2024

Clearly he means the small, insignificant profits like British Gas’s tenfold leap from £72m in 2022 to £751m in 2023. Eye-watering profits which British Gas parent Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea creamed an 80% payrise from in March to claim his staggering £8.2m pay packet, naturally.

Meanwhile, in  an entirely unrelated context, Brearley certainly has no history spinning that cushy Labour revolving door:

https://t.co/ETeWN0YNyv pic.twitter.com/TFM0TsyLR4

— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) August 23, 2024

Brearely worked for blair, then when they left government, he worked for energy firms as a consultant.

He is not on our side, and he never has been. That is why he has that job.

— vob (@voblat) August 23, 2024

One poster on X hinted at why Brearley wasn’t looking all too concerned for his heating bills this winter:

#BBCBreakfast
This is Jonathan Brearley, the useless CEO of OFGEM. He earns over £300,000 per year.
He says, “I know the rising energy prices will be tough.”

This man is a vulture and only cares about maximising the profits for the energy companies.#GMB pic.twitter.com/cGkanxd0Cl

— Alethea Bernard (@Tush27J) August 23, 2024

And speaking of spin, here’s a certain U-turn expert boasting how a Labour government will save the day on energy bills in 2022:

Ofgem announce a 10% hike in energy bills.

It’d be cool if this guy was PM. He’d get it sorted. https://t.co/khCtExkBdG

— HutchOnline (@Hutch_Online) August 23, 2024

Of course, that would be the time Full Fact and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) exposed Labour’s “fully funded” energy price cap policy was wrongly costed – by some £8m.

GB Energy – where are those lower energy bills?

Others reminded people on X that Labour’s corporate capitalist con-artistry has hardly stopped there either. For instance, plenty hadn’t forgotten the party’s promise for its ready-to-go flagship energy policy:

@UKLabour whose side are you on. Day 1 GB Energy? 🐂 💩. Ofgem stating this morning the new power lines will take many years but will transfer cheap renewable energy South to service English demand will lower prices. The 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 cash cow to be milked again while our pensioners freeze! https://t.co/91BUFtNBW9

— YeS4Ever ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇪🇺☘️ (@h1ghlanderYes) August 23, 2024

In particular, Labour had boasted how Great British Energy would save people on their energy bills:

Thank God GB Energy will cut our bills by “up to” £300 at some unspecified point in the distant receding future.

— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) August 23, 2024

However, as the Canary has repeatedly pointed out, the party’s framing of it as a public energy company is a complete sham. Instead, it’s essentially a private finance initiative (PFI) style vehicle for funnelling public funds into private pockets. Or, by the looks of it, Australian “vampire kangaroo” bank Macquarie’s enormous, moneyed marsupial pouch:

Macquarie was the asset management company that destroyed Thames Water.

Anyone who thinks that these vampires are going to deliver cheap energy to anybody in the UK needs their head examined.

They exist solely to extra your money and hand it to the rich.https://t.co/Yy2kH7amN6

— Lindsay Bruce (@RogueCoder250) August 20, 2024

Incidentally, at the end of July, it took full ownership of National Gas. As the Canary’s Steve Topple previously pointed out, this serves as a cautionary tale for how Labour intends to run its ostensible green hedge fund GB Energy. Ultimately then, this is all right-wing neoliberal Labour writ large:

Energy bills could rise to average of £1,714 in Oct.

Energy companies making record profits
£60bn subsidy for renewable energy
£80bn for fossil fuels
£22bn Drax
6m people in fuel poverty.
Pensioner Winter Fuel Payments cut

No end to corporate welfare.https://t.co/iXArRU11i1

— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) August 19, 2024

Overall then, energy corporate capitalist blood-suckers will continue to bleed the public dry for their killer profits:

People will suffer this winter, while energy firms make £bns.

What we’ve seen over the last few years is a PRICE crisis, not an energy crisis.

Our broken system is allowing rampant profiteering and the transfer of public money to private pockets. 🤑https://t.co/n60t0MM6Nb pic.twitter.com/Odi7rdmVyz

— Fuel Poverty Action (@FuelPovAction) August 20, 2024

And as Labour drain the public purse to line their pockets, MPs will sit pretty in parliament. Because who else isn’t going cold or hungry this winter?

Centralist Labour are ensuring the energy companies keep hitting their profit margins. Ofgem ensuring working class people pay for political failings of political class. Remember MPs get a heating allowance…..😡 https://t.co/ck7NnpEjMa

— Paul Barbour (@paulsoviet) August 23, 2024

Labour’s corporate continuity cronyism will push hundreds of thousands more people into fuel poverty this winter. Once again, thousands of lives hang in the balance – but we have a government that simply doesn’t care.

Feature image via the Canary