Don't let summer heat fool you - energy debt is a year-round problem
The volume of people needing help with energy debt is worrying, and so is the amount of debt they have been forced to accumulate. The average energy debt people present to CAB is £2,500. Bear in mind that many people also have other types of debt, such as council tax debt and rent arrears. Unaffordable energy bills, mounting housing costs and the undermining of the social safety net have combined to make it much harder for people to afford life's essentials.
Consider the financial and emotional strain of living with debt. Amanda visited her local Citizens Advice Bureau seeking help with debt. She works on a zero-hours contract in the healthcare sector, which makes it difficult for her to maintain a stable income. Over time, she accumulated more than £3,200 of energy debt. Mark also turned to his CAB for support. He is a self-employed gardener whose income fluctuates throughout the year, and he now faces an energy debt of over £6,300. The situations that brought Amanda and Mark to this point are alarmingly common. They are ordinary people with unpredictable incomes, simply trying to manage their everyday expenses. Energy debt can happen to anyone.
It would be easy to conclude that there is nothing we can do to stop people from being forced into energy debt because the scale of the challenge seems too big to overcome. That position is a counsel of despair.
There are solutions available. For their part, energy suppliers need a more consistent approach to helping people who are struggling to pay their bills. We need a social tariff in the energy market, which would provide people on low incomes with discounted energy bills. An energy debt relief scheme is another urgent priority.
By taking decisive actions like these, suppliers, the UK Government, and the regulator Ofgem can reduce bills and save people from energy debt. It's high time these choices were made.
Dr Matthew Lee is part of the Social Justice team at Citizens Advice Scotland
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