WORKERS could soon be spending more than two months of their annual income on energy bills, the TUC has warned, as experts predicted gas and electricity costs could top a breathtaking £5,000 in 2023.

Average monthly take-home pay next year will be £2,054, according to the Bank of England — less than the half the estimated total annual cost of energy, according to the union body.

The TUC condemned profiteering energy bosses and urged under-pressure Tory ministers to meet with union and business leaders so they can “devise an urgent response to the crisis together.”

The same approach during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the “highly successful furlough scheme, which protected jobs, families and businesses,” the TUC noted.

The union call came after consumer expert Martin Lewis warned of a “national crisis on the same scale we saw during the pandemic” following a decade of stagnating wages and this year’s spiralling energy costs, exacerbated by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Fears that many families are standing on the brink of financial oblivion were heightened today when energy consultancy firm Auxilione warned that the energy price cap, which applies to households across England, Wales and Scotland, could hit a “nightmarish” £5,038 a year from April next year.

The total, decided by regulator Ofgem, is more than £200 higher than already grim predictions earlier this week and nearly four times the average price before this year’s April rise. 

The TUC blasted “political choices made by 12 years of Tory governments,” saying the crisis is hitting families “at a time when they were already more than a decade into the longest and deepest squeeze on wages for 200 years.”

The next price cap increase, due in October, must be scrapped and the cost covered by government via an expanded windfall tax on the British profits of energy giants, it demanded.

Reforms to the energy system must follow, the union body argued, with energy retailers taken into public ownership and new pricing structures that “make basic energy needs affordable.”

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown partially backed the idea today, telling the Guardian newspaper that energy firms which fail to offer lower bills should be temporarily brought into public ownership until the situation improves.

The TUC also called for significant boosts to the minimum wage, universal credit and state pension this October and inflation-matching publi-sector pay rises. 

General secretary Frances O’Grady said: “No-one should struggle to get by in one of the richest countries in the world.

“But up and down the country, millions of families are being pushed to the brink by eye-watering energy bills.

“With prices set to skyrocket even further, it’s time to say enough is enough.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak must “wake up to the size of this crisis,” she said, after the party ruled out further help for families until after a new PM is installed on September 5.  

Urging the Tories to “get a grip,” shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Labour will take the action that’s needed to get us through this national emergency and build the stronger, more secure economy Britain deserves.”

She pledged to “finally end the injustice” that sees people with prepayment meters paying more for energy than those with direct debit arrangements.

The meters should be scrapped entirely, campaigners at Power to the People said. 

The initiative, backed by politicians, academics and environmental activists, is set to call on Scottish Power to tackle “astronomical bill rises” with a protest outside the firm’s Glasgow headquarters tomorrow. 

More than 100,000 people meanwhile have also signed up to the “Don’t Pay” campaign, which has pledged a mass direct debit cancellation on October 1 if one million people join, aiming to hit companies in the pocket should they fail to reduce bills.