Money Box Live: Energy Debt Help

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People owe more money for gas and electricity bills than ever before. New calculations from the energy consultancy firm Baringa reveal the average typical energy debt is £1,500 - that's up £300 in a year. The total owed to energy companies is 3.8 billion pounds, which is almost double what it was two years ago.

Energy prices are also forecast to rise by 5% from April, adding £85 a year to household bills meaning a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity would pay £1823 a year.

In this Money Box Live, we're finding out how to manage energy debts and how to avoid getting into the red in the first place.

Ruth Alexander is joined by Matthew Sheeran from the free debt advice provider, Money Wellness, and Eleanor Taylor from Baringa.

Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producers: Sarah Rogers, Catherine Lund and Neil Morrow Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 3pm on Wednesday 19th February 2025)

Transcript

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0:39.8	Hello, people owe more money for gas and electricity bills than ever before.
0:44.5	New calculations suggest the average typical energy debt is £500, that's up £300 in just a year.
0:51.8	And the grand total owed to energy companies is 3.8 billion pounds.
0:57.8	And as we'll hear in this podcast, the reality of a big bill can be a frightening one.
1:02.1	I was scared. I was panicking. Who's got 1,400 quid. Energy prices are forecast to rise by 5% from April,
1:09.7	adding £85 to the typical annual household bill,
1:13.1	taking it to more than £1,800. So in today's podcast, we're finding out how to get help
1:18.3	with energy debt and how to avoid going into the red in the first place. With me today in the
1:23.1	studio in Solford are Matthew Shearren from the free debt advice provider, Money Wellness, and Eleanor Taylor from Beringa, the consultancy which has been calculating customer debts. Welcome to you both. Thanks for being with us. We'll talk more about the facts and figures in a moment. But first, let's hear from Neil, who's been telling us how he was surprised to find himself in energy debt and shocked at what then followed.
1:45.8	At the time, he was new to paying the bills.
1:47.9	His partner used to do it, but when they split up, he'd tried to switch to a new energy supplier
1:52.6	and got things a bit mixed up.
1:55.5	I just used to give her 500 quid a month, and she just paid all the bills.
2:01.0	I obviously had to move in on my own and I'd never been on before.
2:05.2	I started paying the gas and lechy monthly myself.
2:09.1	So three months down the line,
	...

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