With Britain’s typical household disposable income – after taxes and benefits but before housing and essentials – at £31,385 per year, or £2,615 per month, according to the ONS, this is a dire outlook. Based on those figures, bills next winter will take up more than one-twelfth of the average household’s cash.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates someone on average earnings of £27,500 will be £360 worse off in real terms this year as a result of taxes and inflation.

It would be worse for the poor: the bottom-earning one-fifth of families have a disposable income of £14,550 per year, or £1,212 per month.

Rishi Sunak has offered some support: a £150 council tax rebate covering 80pc of households in England, plus a £200 loan in the form of lower energy bills.

But even after that, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates £1 in every £5 of low-income families’ budgets will go on energy, rising to £1 in every £2 for single adults.

‘Unaffordable’ rise in costs for worst-off

Its economist Rachelle Earwaker says the extra £850 annual cost facing the poorest one-fifth of households is simply unaffordable.

“We are going to see people rationing their energy use, cutting down on food. Bills are increasing at such a huge rate that people will cut down on everything and have to make impossible choices,” she says.

Earwaker says one-third of low-income households are already in arrears on bills, while rising rents pile on more pressure.

Savings may offer some relief as families paid down credit card debts, and built up savings during lockdowns.

However, a survey by the Department for Work and Pensions found a significant share have next to no financial cushion. By the end of March 2021 – when most extra saving took place, and before the inflationary spike began – one family in every seven had no savings, and another two-in-seven had less than £1,500 in the bank.