Helping you with the cost of living

Support is available if you are worried about or struggling with rising costs.

Energy costs

The ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ means a typical UK household will pay no more than £2,500 a year on their energy bill. The Energy Price Guarantee will be in place from 1 October 2022 until June 2023.

You can save money on your energy bills by reducing the amount of energy you use.

Get specialist advice

You could get help from a specialist energy advisor if you are finding it hard to pay energy bills or have debts with energy suppliers. They might be able to help you get a grant to improve your home's energy efficiency.

Ofgem has a dedicated page offering energy advice for households. This inludes information on suppliers, energy bills, meters and the energy price cap. They also suggest ways to save energy and reduce your bills.

Warm spaces in your local community

Essex Libraries are hosting the Warm Welcomes scheme to encourage people to use their local libraries this winter. As well as providing a safe place to keep warm libraries will be offering hot drinks, social spaces, and a range of activities such as cooking demonstrations and homework clubs.

Get extra help from your energy supplier

All energy suppliers and network operators keep a Priority Services Register. This is a free service to make sure that extra help is available for people in vulnerable situations.

You can register if you are of pension age, have a disability or medical condition, are pregnant or have young children.

Help can include advance notice of planned power cuts or priority support in an emergency.

You need to contact your energy supplier and ask to be added to the Priority Services Register.