By David Hilferty, CAS Director of Impact.

This article was first published in The Herald on 08 November 2025. 

“It’s starting to really pick up now.” A colleague from our Extra Help Unit said to me the other day as temperatures start to drop and the nights start to get darker. 

The Extra Help Unit is our Glasgow-based team of expert caseworkers who support people in the most vulnerable circumstances with their energy needs.  

That means when you’re off supply, they get your heating back on. When the meter runs out, they keep your lights on. 

And while it’s never quiet for them, winter inevitably means things get really busy. 

That’s the context in which Ofgem recently unveiled its long-awaited plans to write off up to £500m worth of energy debt across the UK.  

Framed as a ‘reform and reset’, for us it fails on both measures. 

To reset requires a comprehensive and far-reaching approach. With energy debt at an eye-watering £4.4bn, the level of relief outlined is but a flicker in the dark.  

Moreover, conditions are tight and the timeline is narrow – the write-off is restricted to debt accrued between April 2022 and March 2024. 

The average energy debt we see in Scottish CABs is over £2,500 – it didn’t suddenly stop increasing after that period. Because as we have attested so many times in these pages, the energy crisis isn’t over. Nor is the cost-of-living crisis.  

And to truly reform the broken energy market, systemic and wholesale change is required in the shape of action such as a social tariff that makes energy bills affordable in the long-term.  

We see first-hand what it means when the energy market fails to function in a way that serves people on low incomes or vulnerable circumstances. 

A CAB adviser recently shared the experience of a father who came for help because he had no money to heat his home or buy food. A medical condition meant that he’d had to stop working. In that moment where he needed some support, he had to wait over a month for his first Universal Credit payment – another example of systemic failure. His daughter lives with him at weekends and he fears that he can’t care for her properly without emergency support from a food bank and fuel bank.  

Pause on that for a moment. That’s about warmth, light and hot food on the table – the essentials all of us should have. To go without these would prevent a Dad spending time with his daughter. That should shame us all. Again, the Ofgem proposal on energy debt will do little to ease situations like this one. 

Especially when it won’t even happen that soon. As currently proposed, the relief scheme will take effect from April 2026 at the earliest.  

This time last year, I was writing in this column that we can’t go through another winter without a debt write-off scheme and an affordable social tariff. And yet, here we are about to do just that.  

For us, that amounts to the toleration of harm.  

Government and regulators know what’s coming down the line, and yet again we’re not ready for it. 

This is as avoidable as it is inexcusable. It’s long past time for government and regulators to step up. 

Responding to Ofgem’s announcement today of a plan to 'reset and reform' growing energy debt, Citizens Advice Scotland’s Director of Impact David Hilferty said: 

"The scale of the solution proposed by Ofgem fails to match the scale of the problem. 

"Years of unaffordable energy bills have forced people into debt, with devastating consequences for people’s physical and mental health. People are getting trapped in debt just to live - to have warmth, light and hot food on the table. The essentials that all of us should have. 

"Our evidence shows that this harm is entrenched in communities across Scotland - the average energy debt that we see people present with at CABs has doubled over the last five years to £2,500. And it’s even worse for rural households at £3,180. This is unacceptable.

“The energy market is broken and needs major reform – and urgently. Government and regulators need to grasp the scale of the crisis and be bolder in their response.”

ENDS

Responding to Ofgem’s announcement today on lowering standing charge tariffs, Citizens Advice Director of Impact David Hilferty said: 

"Under these new plans people would be given more choice in how they manage their energy costs. While this is welcome – it won't solve the real problem, which is that energy bills are not affordable for thousands of people across Scotland. 

"Our evidence shows that, without major reform of the broken energy market, people will be suffering the cold and going without food or warmth as we head into the winter. Government and regulators know this and yet here we are facing another winter in which people will suffer.  

“For us, that amounts to the toleration of harm. It's unacceptable and also avoidable. Government, regulators and energy companies all need to step up and urgently deliver lasting solutions like energy debt relief, and a social tariff for people on the lowest incomes."

by David Hilferty, CAS Director of Impact. First published in The Herald on 13 September 2025.

A couple of weeks ago I caught a bit of Newsnight. For context, I’ve got a three-year-old and a thirteen-month-old – so if I’m lucky (and on a good night) there’s about a 15-minute window to let my hair down at the end of the evening. And that’s what I was doing with it. But anyway. I was thrown back by one question from the interviewer: “Are we seeing a new cost of living crisis?” 

It’s hard to know where to start with that one. Because – as we in the Citizens Advice network can attest – the cost-of-living crisis we’ve been experiencing for years isn’t over. And it also wasn’t very new for lots of people.  

What the cost-of-living crisis did – and is doing – is entrench and exacerbate existing inequality.  

Yet what tends to happen is that the media, policymakers and governments get stuck in an endless run of individual moments.   

For a week at the end of July it was food inflation.  

A week later that had seemingly been forgotten because Ofgem had announced their new energy price cap.  

Then the following week the Scottish Government announced its Housing Emergency Action Plan and suddenly the story was all about the housing crisis.  

You see what I mean? Moment followed by moment followed by moment. It’s all a bit overwhelming and it limits the bandwidth available to focus on the bigger picture.   

And before anyone else says it, I freely admit that we at CAS – and perhaps other charities too – can sometimes fall into the trap of playing the moments game. Every week for example the Herald invites us to write 520 words here in this space about whatever subject we like, and most weeks we do so by focusing on the immediate crisis – housing, energy bills, social security. It’s hard not to – particularly when we have solutions to suggest.  

But of course none of these are isolated moments. Rather, they all amount to a cumulative and compounding impact – and cumulative and compounding harm.  

To a household that’s struggling, these are not separate moments but inter-dependent long-term experiences of your everyday life. When you can’t pay your rent, you typically can’t afford to put food on the table either, or pay your energy bill or council tax or buy new clothes. These aren’t isolated issues but interlocking parts of dysfunctional systems. 

What we need to do – all of us – is get better at seeing the whole picture. Where problems and issues overlap and interconnect. And where solutions need to be comprehensive and systemic to match that. 

So no, we’re not facing a ‘new’ cost-of-living crisis. Just the same one we’ve been living through for years – with all of its intersected harms. 

What we need now is joined-up thinking to tackle these joined-up problems with genuine long-term and creative solutions.  

To realise that, two things to happen. First, people in the most complex circumstances must be able to access essential support where and when they need it most. And second, greater emphasis must be directed toward prevention and tackling the systemic problems people face. 

Anything less would be to continue the toleration of harm.  

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has responded to the newly announced energy price cap rise of 2% from October 2025. 

CAS Director of Impact David Hilferty said, 

“This new increase will pile even more pressure on the thousands of people across Scotland who are already unable to afford their energy bills. It will mean more people suffering the cold and going without food or warmth as we head into the winter. This is unacceptable. 

“This week we published figures showing that the number of people in debt to their energy companies is higher than ever. Today’s announcement will be a further blow to those households. 

“The energy market is broken and need major reform. Price cap adjustments every three months are not the solution people need. We need government, regulators and energy companies all to step up and urgently deliver lasting solutions like a social tariff and a robust scheme for energy debt relief. Solutions that stop people from experiencing harm.”     

CAS published an energy briefing this week containing a number of statistics and case studies from the Scottish CAB network. The 2-page briefing is available here. 

ENDS 

1 in 7 people who sought help from Scotland’s Citizens Advice network this spring needed help with energy issues, indicating that fuel poverty remains high in Scotland even in warmer months.  

Ahead of the energy price cap announcement, Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has revealed that more than 4,000 people sought the network’s advice on energy issues in April, May and June. Over 2,600 asked for support on fuel vouchers.  

Publishing the data, CAS Director of Impact David Hilferty said, 

“What these figures show is that the current high cost of fuel is not just a problem in the winter but all year round. Thousands of people are struggling with their bills even as the temperatures rise as they did this spring. 

“As we await news of the latest energy price cap over the next few days, any increase will pile even more pressure on many households who are already unable to afford their bills.  

“The number of people we see who are in debt to their energy supplier has jumped 65% in the last five years. The average energy debt we see is £2,500, and in remote and rural areas, it is even higher at £3,180. That has a devastating impact on people's physical and mental health. 

“The Citizens Advice network is an essential lifeline for people. Our advice changes lives every day in communities across Scotland, but the lasting solutions to the problem require actions from government and regulators.  

“The time for talking on this issue is long gone. We need urgent action now.”  

The following examples from the briefing are all recent Scottish CAB cases. NB the individuals named are not available for interview and names have been changed to protect their privacy.  

Sean’s experience  

Sean visited his local CAB because he had no money to heat his home or buy food. A medical condition had forced him to stop working. He waited for a month for his first Universal Credit (UC) payment without access to an advance due to existing UC arrears. After receiving three crisis grants in a year, Sean was unable to get another one. Sean’s daughter lives with him at weekends. He feared he could not care for her properly without access to emergency support and asked for a referral to a food bank and fuel bank. 

Patrick’s experience  

Patrick was struggling with multiple debts and went to his local CAB for support. He is a self-employed gardener, meaning his incomes fluctuates because work is seasonal. Even when work has been available, Patrick has struggled to cover essential costs. When he visited the CAB, Patrick had accrued more than £14,000 of debt. Around £6,300 of this amount was energy debt, alongside £3,000 in Council Tax arrears and nearly £900 of rent arrears. Patrick was so concerned about his finances that he asked his CAB adviser for information about bankruptcy. 

Georgina’s experience  

Georgina lives in an island community and contacted her local CAB after she received a notice about Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) switch-off. An engineer visit was scheduled, however, they did not attend and no explanation was offered. Georgina tried to arrange another appointment, only to be told none were available, causing her much anxiety that her energy supply would be switched off. Weeks went by without being able to resolve this. In June, she received a call from her supplier advising that that she did not in fact have an RTS meter, leaving Georgina confused and frustrated. 

The full CAS energy brief can be read here.

ENDS 

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has responded to the news that Ofgem plans to get tougher with energy companies over the issue of faulty smart meters – something the charity has long called for. 

The energy regulator has announced that suppliers who provide faulty meters and poor service could be forced to pay greater compensation from early 2026.   

Angus McMillan from the Extra Help Unit (EHU) at Citizens Advice Scotland, which works to resolve problems with energy suppliers on behalf of people who may be considered vulnerable or at risk of disconnection – said:  

“We regularly support people impacted by faulty meters with issues ranging from loss of connectivity and false readings to over-charging. And too often these problems are compounded when engineers then fail to keep appointments to fix the meter.  

“Poor service like this is not just annoying. It can be devastating to households if their energy supply is interrupted or if they are over-charged, leading to real misery for those affected.  

“We have long called on Ofgem to toughen enforcement measures on suppliers who let down their customers in this way and we’re pleased to see that they have listened. We will wait to see more detail in due course, but the bottom line is that nobody should suffer because their supplier has given them a meter that doesn’t work.” 

ENDS 

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. 

Replacing RTS meters can involve repairs like rewiring. CAB advisers are aware of households paying for this work themselves. The switch-off is creating extra financial pressure on top of the hardship caused by soaring energy prices. Ofgem should ensure that people are reimbursed for RTS-related repairs. No one should be out of pocket because of the switch-off.

People with RTS meters need decisive action from suppliers and Ofgem. Suppliers should increase the number of meter replacement appointments available. They also need to reduce the number of no-shows and failed appointments. Ofgem is changing its rules to encourage a faster response to the switch-off. With these new rules, Ofgem can – and should – act against suppliers who fail to meet their obligations. The stakes are too high and time is too short for anything other than taking decisive, urgent action. 

Our evidence shows that people who struggle to pay their energy bills also have problems accessing food, and their social security entitlements. This is having a devastating impact on peoples’ physical and mental wellbeing.  

The average energy debt held by people coming to the Scottish CAB network about the issue is £2,500. For people living in rural areas, the average energy debt is more than £3,100.  Further increases will be simply devastating for so many households.

But of course, energy bills don’t exist in isolation. Many people who can’t afford their energy also struggle with their other bills, like food, rent/mortgage and council tax. With all of these rising, the cost of living crisis is still very much with us.  

Council tax debt is the single biggest debt our network deals with each year and our fear is these rises could further increase numbers of people falling into debt or falling further into debt.    

In the meantime, anyone who is unable to meet their bills can get free, confidential and impartial support from their local CAB or from our website www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/.