£1,000 Saved A Year For Typical Family Under Lib Dem Cost Of Living Package

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have stated their plans to tackle the cost-of-living crisis would save a typical struggling family almost £1,000 this year.

Party Leader and Senedd Member Jane Dodds has stated while the Conservatives scramble to save their reputation due to successive scandals, everyday families are being forgotten by the Government at one of the most challenging financial periods since the 2008 crash.

Energy bills are forecast to soar by 50 per cent in April or an estimated £600 per household, forcing families to choose between eating and heating, while broadband bills are set to rise by 9.3%.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling for a rescue package of measures to help families cope with the cost-of-living crisis, taking around £975 off the bills of lower income households. 

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

“Welsh Conservative MPs are utterly missing in action and seem to be more concerned with saving their own political careers and the career of Boris Johnson than helping the thousands of families across Wales struggling to pay their bills.

“Costs are going through the roof, but all the Conservatives are doing is clobbering families with an unfair tax hike. We already have unacceptably high poverty levels in Wales and Conservative plans would make it worse.

“People are fed up with playing by the rules and getting trampled over. Our plans would cut bills today by almost £1,000 for millions of families struggling to get by. No ifs, no buts, just more money in your pocket straight away.” 

The cost-of-living rescue package being proposed by the Lib Dems includes: 

·     Cutting household energy bills: Taking £300 off the heating bills of around 7.5 million vulnerable and low-income households, by doubling the Warm Homes Discount and expanding it to all those on Universal Credit. This would be funded through a one-off Robin Hood tax on the record profits of oil and gas producers and traders including Russia’s Gazprom based in London.

·     Reversing planned tax rises: Scrapping the National Insurance tax hike and the freezing of Income Tax thresholds in April. This would save a working family on Universal Credit an estimated £403 this year.·     Offering cheaper broadband: Forcing broadband providers to offer vulnerable customers cheaper deals of around £15 a month through social tariffs, benefitting up to eight million households and saving them up to £270 each this year. These tariffs are currently offered by some broadband providers on a voluntary basis, but the government could order the regulator Ofcom to make them mandatory by using a change in the law introduced in 2020.