Fuel debt campaign launched

Citizens Advice has launched a new campaign aimed at promoting awareness of ways to avoid and deal with fuel debt in the UK.

The Energy Best Deal initiative is designed to help low income families and consumers deal more effectively with debt management problems arising from unpaid fuel bills.

Many thousands of people approach Citizens Advice for debt advice each month and the charity reports that enquiries related to energy arrears have increased notably in recent months.

As a result of this and in response to Ofgem’s recent commitment to tackling the problem, Citizens Advice has made a range of relevant information available to struggling consumers.

“In the first two months of this year [Citizens Advice] bureaux saw an 11 per cent increase in the number of fuel debt cases they were seeing compared to the same period last year,” a statement from the charity made clear.

Meanwhile, a recent study by Egg found that the typical British consumer now spends around £1,077 per month to cover their bills, food expenses and debt repayments.

Written by Dan Mather