ICYMI: Energy bills, the Queen and Ukraine – the week’s five biggest stories
that Oscars moment, how can anything else have possibly happened? Maybe you decided to take a break from the news, or perhaps there was just too much to keep up with.Well, fear not, it’s the Metro.co.uk team here again to ease you into the weekend and give you a rundown of all you need to know about this week’s news.Life just got a lot harder for thousands of people.The cost of living crisis is a phrase you’ve probably noticed being mentioned a lot in the news over the past couple of months.Hear it enough and it starts to become one of those abstract terms which politicians and media outlets seem to use a lot.But in real terms, it means the average person is paying a lot more for basic everyday products and services – all while the taxman takes a bigger slice of their wages.Yesterday, a hike in energy prices, an increase in National Insurance, council tax and other bills such as subscription services all came into force.The jump in household bills is the biggest in living memory and has seen costs rocket by 54% to just under £2,000 a year.The energy price cap for those on default tariffs who pay by direct debit rose by £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 yesterday.While prepayment customers saw an even bigger jump, with their price cap going up by £708, from £1,309 to £2,017.Ahead of the rise, a number of energy suppliers’ websites crashed as people tried to submit metre readings to show exactly how much energy they had used ahead of the hike.To add insult to injury the hikes have coincided with a drop in temperatures which means many will be forced to make tough decisions over whether or not to heat their homes.TLDR: Yesterday the long-feared hike in energy prices, National Insurance and Council Tax all came into force.
