Jacques Kadio has already cut his grocery bill, refuels his car less and turns the heating off when his children are at school, but still the spiralling cost of electricity is squeezing his household budget to the point of going broke. The father of five, who has been out of work since quitting his job as a security guard a month ago after retraining as an IT technician, now faces monthly power bills nearly three times higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, says a social worker who helps him manage the paperwork. “We can’t keep doing this,” Kadio said. “We’re doing what we can to handle these bills but as they go up it’s getting catastrophic.” Wholesale energy prices in Europe have surged due partly to low gas stocks and a jump in post-lockdown demand, prompting governments to try to protect businesses and consumers […]