ENERGY bills are set to rise by up to £96 a year for millions of households after Ofgem hikes the price cap.
The regulator has upped the maximum price suppliers can charge for electricity and gas from £1,042 a year to £1,138.
But households can save up to £150 a year by switching to a fixed-rate tariff.
The cap affects around 11million households on standard variable tariffs.
Around 4million households on prepayment meters will also see bills rise by £87, to £1,156.
The price hikes will see a return to its pre-pandemic levels and come into effect from April 1 2021.
The watchdog sets the price cap twice a year to limit how much suppliers can charge customers on SVR tariffs, depending on wholesale prices.
Ofgem says it saves these households between £75 and £100 a year, but customers can save even more cash by switching deals.
It comes just days after the watchdog agreed to allow providers to charge households an extra £23.69 a year to help cover coronavirus related debts.
The Adjustment Allowance, which was introduced in 2020 as a one-off coronavirus measure so suppliers could support households through the pandemic.
It increased the cap by £15 a year but the watchdog decided to hike the allowance again, adding even more onto bills.
The idea is to help suppliers claw back some of the cash they have lost through coronavirus measures agreed with the government.
These include not cutting off households who are unable to pay their bills or providing emergency credit to those on payment meters.
More to follow…
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