Mancunians share their concerns about energy bills and heating as bills are set to rise in January.
Household energy prices will rise in January, adding more strain to billpayers during one of the coldest times of the year.
Energy regulator Ofgem said a typical annual household bill is going up to £1928 at a rise of £94 or five percent at the beginning of next year.
A rise in energy bills is adding pressure to the financial difficulties many are already suffering.
Households are struggling due to the effect of the cost of living crisis - and despite dropping temperatures - some may be delaying turning on their heating.
We spoke to people in Manchester about heating concerns.
Energy regulator Ofgem said a typical annual household bill is going up to £1928 at a rise of £94 or five percent at the beginning of next year.
A rise in energy bills is adding pressure to the financial difficulties many are already suffering.
Households are struggling due to the effect of the cost of living crisis - and despite dropping temperatures - some may be delaying turning on their heating.
We spoke to people in Manchester about heating concerns.
Transcript
00:00 We struggle. We do, yeah. We struggle at times, but we get through it. You get through it, yes.
00:05 Household energy prices will rise in January, adding more strain to bill payers during one
00:10 of the coldest times of the year. Energy regulator Ofgem said a typical annual
00:15 household bill will be going up to £1,928, at a rise of £94 or 5% at the beginning of next year.
00:24 A rise in energy bills is adding pressure to the financial difficulties
00:28 many are already facing. Households are struggling due to the effect of the cost of living crisis,
00:35 and despite dropping temperatures, some may be delaying turning on their heating.
00:40 We spoke to people in Manchester about heating concerns.
00:43 Well, I think it's definitely after budget for it, and I think it's become more of a priority
00:46 for the heating than it probably was before, just to make sure that you've got money to cover that
00:54 bill, or if you're on smart meters and stuff to make sure that your energy saving and stuff like
01:00 that, where you can to cut the cost down. So yeah, it's a worry. It's definitely a safety
01:05 concern for sure. I mean, you can't just wrap... It's okay to wrap up warm and keep moving,
01:10 like being out and about, like today, we've got scarves and hats and stuff like that.
01:14 If you're at home and you're sitting, you're not actually kind of feeling the warmth. So yeah,
01:19 and extra blankets and that, okay, they do help, but I think you need the heat in your body to be
01:24 able to kind of stay healthy. I think depending on the age group and what your personal circumstances
01:29 are, I think they do need to be able to turn on the heat. The younger ones, the ones that are
01:35 thinking have to have... I think they should maybe think and just wrap up and put in the
01:39 cardigan on, because in the olden times, before my time, that's what you did and they survived.
01:44 And I know a lot of centenarians from that age group, and they didn't have the heating we had.
01:49 So it's just costing a fortune. It's costing an absolute fortune, over a fiver a day on electric,
01:57 as is a pre-cleaning meter. And there has been a couple of times where we've woke up and it's
02:05 gone off. It's gone off through night. Everything's just going up and it's just ridiculous. Your
02:10 shop's what you're used to get. Just normal food shop is gone up. They have got warm places to go.
02:18 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we can go and have a cup of tea. But elderly are not going to venture out in
02:24 this weather, this snow where they're sleeping. They're not going to go to these cafes where it's
02:30 a warm places. They're really good. They were really good. Yeah. But snow comes and ice and
02:36 slippery. They've got nobody to take them. They've got nobody to take them. I think they're going to
02:40 find it hard. It's just my husband and myself now. There's no point really in heating a whole house.
02:47 We might as well think outside the box and heat the rooms that we're in. It just seems like burning
02:53 money, doesn't it? You would hope that the older people would be helped in some way, because they're
02:59 going to be thinking twice, aren't they, about how to heat themselves up. I'm a bit of a scrooge.
03:03 I've switched my heating on twice so far this year, but only for short periods of time,
03:09 because I have a smart meter and I'm just absolutely amazed how much money by just having
03:15 the heating on. And it's not so much the gas, it's the electric. I find that's really, really
03:20 expensive. Cooking with electric, the meter just spins off its axis when you're putting ovens on
03:26 and heating meals up.