The bills are mounting for Maureen Hart, a former librarian living on a fixed income after hip and back pain from a fall forced her into an early retirement.

The gas and electric bill for her bungalow in Clacton-on-Sea, a seaside town east of London, more than tripled in April, as utility bills did throughout Britain when a government cap on energy payments loosened. To save money and afford the help she needs to wash her hair and clean, Hart, 77, is cutting back on taxi rides to visit her son several towns away, and keeping the heat off, even if it aggravates her pain.

“You really don’t think you will be one of those that cannot afford to heat yourself,” Hart said. “There must be thousands more people who are like me thinking: What went wrong?”

Inflation was already on the rise in Britain and elsewhere before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, triggered by rising natural gas prices and supply-chain shortages after pandemic lockdowns. The war has abruptly pushed the price of oil and gas even higher.

Now consumer prices in Britain are rising at their fastest rate in 30 years, and wages are failing to keep up, putting a squeeze on household incomes not seen since records began in 1956.

The cost-of-living jump is especially dismaying for older people and others with lower or limited incomes, such as those living on government pensions and disability payments, which remained largely the same even as inflation hit.

April has been especially tough. Earlier in the month the government raised its cap on energy prices, which follow the global gas prices, by 54 per cent, a move that affects 22 million households. The cap, which is reset twice a year, is expected to rise again in October.

The continuing war in Ukraine not only promises to keep energy bills high for the foreseeable future, it is also pushing up the price of food, because Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of wheat, corn, barley and cooking oil.