Petrol prices: `Getting to work costs so much I might have to quit'

The cost of filling up the tank of an average car with petrol is has now hit £100 - and that's having a huge impact on people across the UK.  

 

People who rely on their cars for work are struggling with high prices as they continue to rise, in the midst of a cost of living crisis.  It's partly because of the war in Ukraine, which has led to Europe cutting down oil imports from Russia. 

 

 Before invading Ukraine, Russia had supplied a quarter of the oil EU countries import - but the UK has joined the US and EU in banning imports of Russian fossil fuels, as part of sanctions against the country due to the war. 

 

 There has also been criticism of fuel companies like BP and Shell, which have recorded record profits this year - following a decline during the pandemic.  

 

* Shell profits nearly triple as oil prices surge 

 

 * BP profits soar as calls for windfall tax grow.

 

 All this has led to soaring prices, and that's affected people like Gordon, who works as a driver in Consett, County Durham, and is even considering changing his job because of the cost of petrol in the UK right now. 

 

 Gordon drives 30 miles every day to get to work.  "It's actually getting to the point now where I'm contemplating leaving a full-time, steady job to look for something close to home just to save 30 or 40 quid a week on fuel," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.  "It's a very hard decision but I've got a wife, a house and kids - and that money that is spent better elsewhere." 

 

 Olivia's a nurse in Flintshire, north Wales. When she filled up her car this week, it cost her £55, and has seen prices near her as much as 195p per litre. 

 

The 24-year-old driver said: “I've never paid so much in 7 years of driving. "I'm working as a nurse, and it takes 30 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to get back." 

 

 But she says there are other nurses in a much worse position than her. “She works in the community and costs a lot to her colleagues who have to take patients home,” she said. 

 

 Laura says she lives in Cumbria and her gasoline prices are affecting her mental health, she says. Every day, she drives  25 miles each way to  and from work. “I am very concerned about the price of gasoline,” she said. “It affects my anxiety, I don’t know when the price hike will stop and how it will affect how I can work.” Growth will stop. I'm just really worried." 

 

 Michaela, the delivery driver, said he was filling his car with 30 pounds worth of diesel  every day and was spending up to 200 pounds a week. 

 

 One person contacted Radio 1 Newsbeat and said it would cost them the equivalent of a day's wages to buy gasoline for a week.  Another person said he currently spends a quarter of his salary on gasoline. What are you doing to help?  In March of this year, the government cut taxes on gasoline and diesel to 5d per liter. But since then, the price has risen so much that there has been little to no downside. 

 

Labor has called for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies to  help those in the current cost of living crisis, but British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently said Britain's energy company was going to go bankrupt, even though Conservative MPs initially voted against the plan. 

 

They announced that they would pay an additional $25. % tax for the next 12 months -  up to £5bn.

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