Martin Lewis has issued a warning to billpayers that their bills are set to skyrocket.

It comes after Ofgem increased the energy price cap in response to rising wholesale prices. The industry regulator confirmed that the price cap will rise from £1,834 for the average household to £1,928 from January 1, 2024.

The money-saving expert explained to his followers on social media that the 5 per cent rise means they'll pay "more than any winter before" as it comes alongside the scrapping of one vital form of government support. Overall, the unit rate on electricity will go up 4.6 per cent while gas will go up 7.6 per cent.

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Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Martin explained: "So bigger rises for gas households than electricity and proportionately bigger for higher users (due to impact of unit rates). Yet the reason you'll pay so much more is as last winter every home got £66/mth govt reduction.

"You don't have that this winter. So while Oct 'inflation dropped due to cheaper energy bills' - that ignores the missing govt support, in reality we're paying more for energy..."

According to Martin, it means that households should have paid on average £198 a month in January 2023 compared to £160 in January 2022. However, with the government discount factored in, people actually paid around £132 a month.

He added: "In other words a typical home pays £28/mth more this winter, or factor in seasonal adjustments due to high winter use and as a back of envelope calculation it is more like £45more."

Similar warnings of rising bills in the winter have come from other industry experts. Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “These price hikes come at the worst possible time for households.

“Bills will go up just as winter bites hard and household finances are hit further by Christmas credit cards, the long January pay period and the ongoing wider cost-of-living crisis. We warned Ofgem that a January price cap rise was a bad idea when the regulator consulted on this in 2022.

“Now the chilling effect of the change is being realised, the inhumanity of this policy is clear to see. It will be anything but a happy new year for people trapped in Britain’s broken energy system.”