Sunak’s sick joke: Families facing £24bn energy and tax bill bombshell

3 Apr 2023

EMBARGO: 00:01 Saturday 1st April

Rishi Sunak’s Government to cost families and pensioners a huge £24 billion this year
Energy bill support cut and stealth taxes to cost the average household £1,280
Lib Dems have slammed the move on April 1st as “Sunak’s sick joke”

Today’s freezing of tax thresholds will cost taxpayers £12bn hit in 2023-24, with an average hit of £440 per person, figures published by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

On top of this, the failure to renew the £400 energy bill support on April 1st will mean families will pay nearly £12 billion more for their energy in the coming year.

It means a family with two average taxpayers is now facing a £1,280 hit to their incomes in the next year because of the Conservative government’s policies.

Liberal Democrats are calling for the Energy Price Guarantee to be cut to £1,971 - the level it was last April, saving families an average of £400 each. Alongside this, the Warm Home Discount and Winter Fuel Payment should be doubled to help the most vulnerable households. This would be paid for through a proper windfall tax on the oil and gas companies and a tax on the bonuses of their top executives.

Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

“With families and pensioners set to pay for the Conservatives' failure to fix the economy, today is nothing more than Sunak’s sick joke.

“The energy crisis means families and pensioners are being hit with a £12 billion energy bill bombshell and stealth tax rises will clobber households even more.

“Now more than ever, hard-working people deserve a fair deal. But this Conservative Government is letting people down badly by hiking taxes and refusing to cut their energy bills.

“Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak had a chance to show they care about the cost-of-living crisis that’s hitting millions of people, instead, they failed miserably. This May millions of people will have a chance to send them a message they can’t ignore by voting Liberal Democrat.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that the freezing of personal tax thresholds will cost taxpayers £12bn in 2023-24 (OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook, p.66).

Separate research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats from the House of Commons Library has found that on average each income tax payer in England will pay an additional £440 in tax in 2023-24 due to the freezing of tax thresholds. Full research can be found here.

When bills were hiked last year the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak gave all households £400 towards the cost of their energy bills through the "Energy Bills Support Scheme". From April, this scheme will end, adding £400 to household energy bills. This works out at a total of £12 billion for households in England, Wales and Scotland (Source: BEIS Regional and local authority electricity and gas consumption statistics for 2021 - published 22nd December 2022).