Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been under mounting pressure to help Brits struggling with their energy bills as regulator Ofgem prepares to lift price cap by £693 from April 1.
It will mean a 54% jump most households' bills - which go up from £1,277 to £1,971 - and prepayment customers will be worse off, with a bills hike of £708 from £1,309 to £2,017.
Mr Sunak, who today delivered his Spring Statement, has faced calls to intervene as Brits brace for the eye-watering bill hikes and a cost of living crisis, with inflation forecast to hit almost 9%.
So, with millions of households set to see their incomes squeezed, what is the Chancellor doing to help? And could he be doing more?
£200 energy bill loan for all
Before today, the Chancellor announced all energy customers will get a £200 refund on their energy bill later in the year, which will be applied automatically from October.
But it led to Mr Sunak being branded the "loan shark Chancellor" by Labour as the discount will be clawed back will need to be repaid in £40 annual instalments, from April 2023 over five years.
£150 council tax rebate for some
Millions of Brits across the UK will be eligible for a £150 rebate off their council tax bill this year.
The council tax rebate will apply to homes in council tax bands A, B, C or D in England and Wales - roughly 80% of properties - but not those who live in council tax bands E, F, G and H (or I as well, in Wales).
Scotland residents will also be entitled to £150 off if they are in bands A to D - but they're also qualify if they're currently getting a council tax reduction as well.
If you're eligible, the money won't need to be paid back and will be issued directly from councils from April.
Income tax and National Insurance cuts
Mr Sunak raised the threshold at which workers start paying National Insurance by £3,000 to £12,570 - claiming it'd save Brits up to £330 a year.
But this doesn't factor in a 1.25 percentage point rise in the same tax that he's already announced. This will cut into the £330 saving, and outstrip it entirely for anyone earning over £37,000 a year.
In a surprise announcement, he also promised to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p in the pound - albeit only in April 2024 and not now.
VAT cut on solar panels and heating insulation
Households will pay no tax on home efficiency improvements, the Chancellor has announced.
For the next 5 years, families installing solar panels, heat pumps and more home insulation will pay 0% VAT, Rishi Sunak said.
The government will also reverse the EU's decision to take wind and water turbines out of scope and zero rate them.
Families will save £1,000 in tax installing solar panels, Mr Sunak claimed.
Cutting fuel duty
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed a 5p-a-litre cut to fuel duty as part of his Spring Statement.
This move comes as a boost for drivers - but experts have called for more action from the Chancellor after petrol prices hit record highs.
The cut in fuel duty means the rate will be reduced to 52.92p for both petrol and diesel from 6pm this evening until March next year. The current rate is 57.95p per litre.
Fuel duty is included in the price drivers pay at the pumps, with VAT at 20% charged on top of the total price.
The Treasury boasted the fuel duty cut, along with a freeze already planned, will save the "average van driver" around £200 this year - or £1,500 for the average haulier.
But motoring experts at the RAC suggest the cut to fuel duty will save drivers just £3 off the cost of filling a 55-litre family car.
What has he failed to do?
The vast majority of people will still be left with huge hikes in energy bills.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility also predicted that, due to inflation and other spiralling cost of living pressures, real household disposable incomes would fall by a staggering 2.2% in 2022-23 in what will be "the largest fall in a single financial year since ONS records began in 1956-57".
Wages will not keep pace with inflation, which the OBR believes could hit almost 9% this year, and benefits will not either, with the Chancellor refusing to raise welfare or restore the £20 uplift to Universal Credit put in place during the pandemic.
Think tanks say the Chancellor has left poorer households exposed to the worst impacts of the cut, Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, pointing out £2 in every £3 is going to the top half of earners.
He said: “It’s hard to overstate the scale of the cost of living crisis coming, with the year ahead bringing the highest inflation in 40 years and the worst income squeeze on record. But while our household finances are being hammered, the public finances have actually improved."
