Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“Every day our advisers help people in desperate situations: people who can’t get to the end of the month without a food bank voucher, parents unable to afford nappies and patients with no credit to call their GP.
‘‘Without more support, the soundtrack to winter will be the beeping of emergency prepayment meter credit running out and the click of lights and appliances being turned off.
“We need a plan not platitudes. Government support has to match the scale of this crisis, there must be a financial lifeline for those who need it most.”
Data from Citizens Advice
- Citizens Advice is seeing huge demand for its services. It has had a sadly record-breaking year for referring people to crisis support – such as food banks and charitable grants. More than 120 000 people have been referred for this type of support.
- The charity’s latest data dashboard shows in July the charity saw the highest ever number of people who were unable to top up their prepayment meter – the fifth time this record has been broken this year
- Analysis from the charity shows even with current government support, 1 in 5 (21%) people in the UK won’t be able to afford to pay their energy bills in October based on the projected price cap rise
- This could jump to more than 1 in 3 (36%) people in January when prices are predicted to soar above £4,600
- Based on the projected price cap rise the average prepayment meter customer will be spending £249-a-month on to keep their prepay meter topped up this for October, jumping to £563 in January 2023
Notes to editors
- Citizens Advice includes the national charity; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.
- Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and post. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers.
- The Citizens Advice Witness Service provides free, independent support for prosecution and defence witnesses in every criminal court in England and Wales.
- Citizens Advice offers Pension Wise services at 500 locations in England and Wales.
- Citizens Advice’s services are free, independent, confidential and impartial, and available to all regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age or nationality.
- To get advice online or find your local Citizens Advice, visit org.uk
- For consumer advice, call the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 to talk in Welsh.
- We helped 2.6 million people face to face, by phone, email and webchat in 2017-18. For service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
- Citizens Advice staff are supported by over 23,000 trained volunteers, working at over 2,500 locations in England and Wales.
