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Budget 2023: Energy Price Guarantee to remain at £2,500 in win for Martin Lewis and MSE – here's what it means for your bills
Typical household energy bills will remain at £2,500 a year for at least three months from 1 April as the Government has heeded our and others' calls to postpone a planned 20% rise. The announcement ahead of today's Budget follows a month-long campaign led by Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, which has been backed by 130 charities and consumer organisations.
Watch Martin's video briefing on what the 20% bill rise postponement means in practice, the new unit rates & standing charges, and what's happening to fixes
You can also read Martin's 14 Energy Price Guarantee need-to-knows and our What is the Energy Price Cap? guide for more info on how these schemes work, plus see our Energy Price Guarantee calculator to see how much you'll be paying from April 2023.

Martin said: "A month ago, I wrote to the Chancellor asking him to postpone the 20% rise in the Energy Price Guarantee. That letter was supported by 131 major charities including Which?, National Energy Action, Citizens Advice, Alzheimer's Society and more – plus Energy UK, the energy industry trade body.
"I'd like to thank the Chancellor for listening. The rise – which would likely only have lasted three months – would have caused disproportionate harm financially and, with more price rise letters, to people's mental health.
"Of course, this doesn't mean bills will get cheaper. In April we see the end of the winter energy support – the £66/£67 a month everyone has received to lower their bills. So in practical terms people are still going to pay more than they have been, but at least some of the planned rise has been forestalled.
"Now we have to hope that the current predictions come true, that from July, the current wholesale prices will mean the Price Cap drops, and therefore bills fall by 19% – a welcome relief to millions."
Typical energy bills will remain at £2,500, though bills will still rise from 1 April
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), which is essentially a subsidy from the state off the Price Cap rates, will remain at £2,500 a year for a typical household for at least three months from 1 April. It had been due to rise to £3,000 a year, but falling wholesale prices has meant that the EPG will likely cost a lot less than expected giving significant headroom to enable a postponement.
On the morning of Friday 3 March, Martin told Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the EPG rise was likely to be scrapped, as energy firms were preparing for it not to go ahead.
The Chancellor today said: "High energy bills are one of the biggest worries for families, which is why we're maintaining the Energy Price Guarantee at its current level. With energy bills set to fall from July onwards, this temporary change will bridge the gap and ease the pressure on families, while also helping to lower inflation too."
The planned EPG increase also coincided with the end of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS), which has seen households receiving £400 in bill support over six months from October to March. The two changes combined would have seen many facing an effective annual price hike of 40%. That EBSS will end as scheduled, so households will still see bills rise in April, despite the postponement of the EPG increase.
MSE's Energy Price Guarantee calculator: How much you'll pay from April?
If you're on a standard tariff (most are), plug your figures into our Energy Price Guarantee calculator for an estimate of what you'll pay under the from 1 April 2023 until 30 June 2023 - factoring in the end of the £400 support that all households have been getting and slight tweaks to the standing charges and unit rates that will also see a shift in costs.
On current forecasts, the EPG should be replaced by a lower Energy Price Cap from July. Regulator Ofgem announced earlier this month that its Price Cap would fall by 23% from April to June to £3,280 a year for typical users. But analysts at Cornwall Insight predict this could fall to £2,013 a year from 1 July and to £2,003 a year from 1 October. As consumers pay the lower of the two, it means the EPG will no longer be needed from July.
Prepayment meter customers will also pay less for energy from 1 July after the Chancellor confirmed that these users will no longer pay more compared with people on direct debits.
Below is a copy of the letter that the Chancellor sent to Martin on the Energy Price Guarantee (click through to Twitter to hear the letter via alt text):
More than 130 organisations supported Martin and MSE's call
In February, Martin first wrote to the Chancellor urging him to continue energy bills support at current levels by postponing the planned rise in the Energy Price Guarantee.
Since the letter was sent on Thursday 9 February, 131 organisations have come out in support of Martin and MSE's call to postpone the hike:
The full list is as follows: 1. 38 Degrees. 2. Action for Children. 3. Action for M.E.. 4. Advice for Renters. 5. Advice UK. 6. Age UK. 7. Alex The Leukodystrophy Charity. 8. Alexandra Rose Charity. 9. Alzheimer's Society. 10. Anthony Nolan. 11. Arthritis Action. 12. Asthma + Lung UK. 13. Barnardo's. 14. Big Issue Foundation. 15. Blind Veterans UK. 16. Cancer Support UK. 17. Centre For Ageing Better. 18. Centre for Sustainable Energy. 19. Charities Aid Foundation. 20. Charity Finance Group. 21. Chartered Institute of Housing. 22. Child Poverty Action Group. 23. Christians Against Poverty. 24. Citizens Advice. 25. Citizens Advice Scotland. 26. Coeliac UK. 27. Community Integrated Care. 28. Crohn's & Colitis UK. 29. Cystic Fibrosis Trust. 30. Daughters of Charity Services. 31. Debt Free Advice. 32. Diabetes UK. 33. Disability Benefits Consortium. 34. Disability Rights UK. 35. Down's Syndrome Association. 36. End Child Poverty. 37. End Fuel Poverty Coalition. 38. End Furniture Poverty. 39. Energy Action Scotland. 40. Environment Centre Swansea. 41. Epilepsy Action. 42. Epilepsy Society. 43. Fair By Design. 44. Fairer Housing. 45. Family Fund. 46. FareShare. 47. Feeding Britain. 48. FND Hope UK. 49. Food Train Scotland. 50. Forget Me Not Children's Hospice. 51. Fuel Bank Foundation. 52. Gingerbread. 53. Greater Manchester Poverty Action. 54. Green Alliance. 55. Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. 56. Headway. 57. Huntington's Disease Association. 58. Inclusion Barnet. 59. Independent Age. 60. Independent Food Aid Network. 61. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 62. Just Fair. 63. Kidney Care UK. 64. Leonard Cheshire. 65. Leukaemia Care. 66. Macmillan Cancer Support. 67. Mencap. 68. MND Association. 69. Money Advice Scotland. 70. Money Advice Trust. 71. Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. 72. MS Society. 73. MS Trust. 74. Multiple System Atrophy Trust. 75. National Autistic Society. 76. National Energy Action. 77. National Energy Foundation. 78. National Pensioners Convention. 79. National Zakat Foundation. 80. National Council for Voluntary Organisations. 81. Nesta. 82. North East Child Poverty Commission. 83. OCD UK. 84. P3 Charity Parkinson's UK. 85. Polio Survivors' Network. 86. PSP Association. 87. Rainbow Trust Children's Charity. 89. Reframe Coaching. 90. Refuge. 91. Retail Trust. 92. Rethink Mental Illness. 93. RNIB. 94. Rural Coffee Caravan. 95. Samaritans. 96. Scope. 97. Sense. 98. Shine Charity. 99. South West London Law Centres. 100. Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland. 101. Spinal Injuries Scotland. 102. StepChange. 103. Stroke Association. 104. Students Organising for Sustainability. 105. Talk Club. 106. The Kaleidoscope Plus Group. 107. The Money Charity. 108. The National Kidney Federation. 109. The National Youth Agency. 110. The Neurological Alliance. 111. The Poverty Alliance. 112. The Rebuild Group. 113. Thomas Pocklington Trust. 114. Together for Short Lives. 115. Tourettes Action. 116. Trussell Trust. 117. TTP Network. 118. UK Men's Sheds Association. 119. UK Youth. 120. Warm This Winter. 121. Warm Wales. 122. WellChild. 123. Welsh Local Government Association. 124. Which? 125. Women's Budget Group. 126. Yorkshire Energy Doctor CIC. 127. Young Lives vs Cancer. 128. Your Own Place. 129. Your Pay Your Way. 130. Z2K (Zacchaeus 2000 Trust).
Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, has also come out in support of the call.
What you should be doing now to help yourself
There are no regular tariffs meaningfully cheaper than the Price Guarantee, so you can't switch and save right now. Yet there are three areas to focus on...
- Try to cut your energy usage. There are lots of ways to easily reduce what you use. Try our new interactive energy-saving tool, where you can click around a virtual house to find out how much appliances cost to run and how to cut back. Also, see more energy-saving tips, the Energy mythbusters guide for less clear-cut issues, and our Heat the human guide.
- Check you're paying the right amount. You can use our 'Direct debit too high?' calculator to check.
- Have you got all the help you qualify for? First check you've got the £400 help all households are eligible for – important as some on prepay meters haven't claimed theirs. Plus if you can't pay, check our Struggling to pay – energy help guide.
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