© Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Lightrocket/Getty ImagesProtester in London
Jennifer Jones keeps feeding money into her energy meter, but it never seems to be enough. And when she can't pay, she feels the impact immediately. The power in her London home has gone off suddenly three times recently, once when her partner was cooking an egg.
Like millions of people, Jones, 54, is struggling to cope as energy and food prices skyrocket during Britain's
worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. The former school supervisor has health problems and relies on government benefits to get by, but her welfare payments are nowhere near enough to cover her sharply rising bills.
"I've always struggled, but not as much. Everything is going up. I can't even pay my rent, my council tax, I can't afford to do anything. ... I keep asking myself, what am I supposed to do?"
And things are getting worse. U.K. residents will see an
80% increase in their annual household energy bills, the country's energy regulator announced Friday,
following a record 54% spike in April. That will bring costs for the average customer from 1,971 pounds ($2,332) a year to 3,549 pounds.
The latest price cap — the maximum amount that gas suppliers can charge customers per unit of energy — will take effect Oct. 1, just as the cold months set in. And bills are expected to
rise again in January to 4,000 pounds.
Comment: And these are the shortages that we're being warned about, because it's likely that numerous and various other companies are quietly reducing production in the hopes that energy prices will fall, despite all evidence to contrary, and, soon enough, people will be confronted with shortages of all kinds, amidst soaring inflation.