Origin Energy customers are being warned to brace for a huge gas price hike, with the weighted average tariff charge for residential customers set to increase by 22.1 per cent and the small business tariff to rise by 24.3 per cent.

Energy specialist from St Vincent de Paul, Gavin Dufty, says it’s “not a run of the mill sort of thing” but Origin isn’t the only company raising prices.

“These price increases should have kicked in on the 1st of January but they were a little bit lax in putting them up in the paper so they’re coming in 1st of February. All the other companies ran earlier – they are kicking in on the 1st of January,” he told Heidi Murphy, filling in for Tom Elliott.

Press PLAY below to hear more about the hikes + what customers should do