Skyrocketing gas prices: 'Lower middle class will hit poverty line'

The Federal Network Agency warns of "huge price jumps" for gas.

Consumer advocates and researchers are already seeing drastic consequences for consumers.

Berlin – Last week, the federal government declared the second crisis level in the gas emergency plan, the so-called alarm level.

This emergency plan has never been activated in Germany.

It provides for close monitoring of the gas market and strict gas savings.

Only in the third stage does the state intervene in the market.

Federal Network Agency warns of "huge price jumps" for gas

In this context, the Federal Network Agency warns of “huge price jumps” for gas.

"Depending on the building, it can double or triple," said the head of the authorities, Klaus Müller, last Friday.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also promised the country a hard winter – and called again for energy saving.

Because of the worsening situation, demands for a gas price cap and higher tenant protection were raised.

At the moment, the gas price increases from last autumn and thus from the time before Russia attacked Ukraine are still being passed on, Müller pointed out on ARD.

This alone means price increases for customers by sometimes 30, 50 or 80 percent.

Müller told the broadcasters RTL/ntv that the price level had risen by 50 percent since the throttling of Russian gas deliveries last week.

A maintenance window is threatening in mid-July, then the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will be completely shut down "and we don't know what will happen afterwards".

Consumers suffer from high gas prices - payment difficulties threaten

Consumers are already feeling the consequences of the high prices on the gas market.

According to the

, the consumer centers report that they have more work this year.

In addition, the clientele would change, says Antje Kahlheber from the energy cost advice of the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer center to the newspaper.

More and more people are coming to them who have made do with their money up to now, but can no longer pay the new prices.

The consumer centers in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin would also report something similar.

"Many consumers for whom the gas deductions are increased could then get into payment difficulties overnight," Kahlheber fears, according to the newspaper.

Professor Christoph Strünck, who researches the subject of energy poverty at the University of Siegen, pointed out in the

that this is an intensification of a trend that has already been observed in recent years: "If the prices for important basic goods such as energy, Housing or mobility increase significantly, more and more households from the lower middle class will hit the poverty line,” he says, according to the newspaper.

List of rubrics: © Patrick Pleul/picture alliance/dpa