Four in 10 'already struggling' with energy price hikes

Statistics for the year to March 2022 showed electricity had risen 22.4% while gas has risen 27.9%, adding hundreds of euro to standard bills. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA

Over half of people are either struggling to afford their everyday home energy needs or say they couldn’t withstand further price increases of any kind, a new survey has found.

Furthermore, the Taxback.com survey showed 80% of people plan to make changes to how much they spend on the likes of housing and transport along with their shopping basket as they cope with soaring energy bills.

Barry Cahill, director at Taxback.com, said: “Whether they go up by €5, €25, or €75 a week, some households will simply not be able to afford to pay their bills if the costs continue to increase, as they invariably will as many of the international price increase have yet to filter through to the Irish consumer.” 

According to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the cost of powering our homes has surged in the last year. 

Statistics for the year to March 2022 showed electricity had risen 22.4% while gas has risen 27.9%, adding hundreds of euro to standard bills.

Consumers are set to feel yet more pain in the coming months with further price hikes. 

Bord Gáis raised its prices on 15 April, with the average electricity bill up 27% and the average gas bill up 39%; Energia’s prices rose by 15% today; SSE Airtricity and Electric Ireland are also hiking prices from 1 May 1. 

Government’s electricity credit

The next bill many will face may be offset by the Government’s €200 electricity credit, but millions of customers are facing huge annual bills heading into next winter.

Alongside the energy price spike, inflation across a range of areas has also been surging with the cost of transport, food, and housing all rising in the last year.

Between February and March 2022, prices rose 1.9% which was the highest figure since the CSO began collating these statistics in 1997.

According to the survey of 1,200 people, just 7% of people say that they wouldn’t struggle with any further energy price hikes.

This compares to 41% of people who say they are already struggling with their home energy costs and 18% who said that any increase would mean they’re left struggling.

The survey also asked people whether they’d considered changes to their buying habits in the last year, because of the increased cost of living.

Across all categories, the majority of consumers are going to make changes of some sort, with the highest number — 83% intending to make changes to mitigate the cost of home heating. 

Three in five people said they’d look for better value on energy costs, while 17% said they had no plans to do anything differently around their spending on it.

When asked to rank categories of items they hope to spend less on, alcohol and tobacco came first. This was followed by transport costs, food, and energy costs.

“77% of people are going to do what they can to bring down how much they spend on transport costs as well as on groceries and food shopping, and 64% will shop around to a greater extent for their motor insurance,” Mr Cahill added.

“This shows that almost everyone is feeling the effects of rising prices to such a degree that they are prepared to take action.”