Visits to Government energy bill help page rose 54% between April and May 2022

StepChange, a debt charity, said visits to its web page on Government help with electricity and gas bills rose by 54 per cent between April and May 2022, in its monthly client data report for May 2022 published in May 2022¹. The charity said this "perhaps provides an early indication of the impact of the energy price cap rise"¹.

The report covers people who first received debt advice from the charity in May 2022. More than 14,000 new clients received full debt advice that month, up from around 12,500 in April 2022 and around 12,000 in May 2021¹. An "increase in the cost of living" was the second most commonly cited reason for debt, given by around one in six new clients (16 per cent); "lack of control of finances" remained the most common reason, at 18 per cent¹.

The charity said the proportion of clients behind on gas bills (23 per cent) or electricity bills (28 per cent) remained high relative to previous years, but that it was yet to see a substantial increase in the proportion of clients behind on these types of arrears¹. It did report a small rise in some average arrears amounts: average electricity arrears increased by £44, from £1,198 in April to £1,242 in May¹.

Other figures in the report were little changed. The proportion of clients in receipt of Universal Credit was 33 per cent, and the proportion with a negative budget was 31 per cent, two percentage points higher than the 29 per cent recorded in May 2021¹. New clients in May had similar characteristics to those in previous months, with single parents, renters, younger age groups and women continuing to be over-represented among new debt advice clients¹.

The report does not give a figure for the total number of visits to the Government help page, only the percentage change between the two months, and it does not set out how the energy price cap rise affected individual households' bills¹.

Why it matters for households

The energy price cap, which limits the unit rates and standing charges that suppliers can charge on default tariffs, rose in April 2022, and the charity links the jump in interest in Government bill help to that change¹. For households already behind on energy bills, the report points to a rise in average electricity arrears of £44 between April and May 2022, to £1,242¹. The share of the charity's clients behind on electricity (28 per cent) and gas (23 per cent) remained high compared with earlier years, though the charity said it had not yet seen a substantial rise in the proportion of clients in energy arrears¹. Cost of living was cited by 16 per cent of new clients as a reason for their debt, second only to lack of control of finances¹.

What happens next

The report gives no forward guidance on energy prices or on the numbers seeking help. It notes only that the charity is yet to see a substantial increase in the proportion of clients behind on gas and electricity bills, alongside the small rise in average electricity arrears¹.