Newcastle charity say arrears on household bills surge 25% among people seeking debt advice
StepChange found a surge in people looking for debt advice as the April bill price hike looms.
New figures by a Newcastle charity have revealed that arrears for household bills have surged by 25% in the past year.
The study by StepChange found the average person is almost £4,000 in arrears in the past year, with mortgage arrears seeing a 69% rise.
Simon Trevethick, from StepChange, said: "It is a really difficult position for a lot of people and 25% is a huge jump so that’s on average going to nearly £4,000 in arrears. Obviously with April bills set to hike even further, we would expect more and more people to be coming to us with deeper and deeper arrears.
"What we would like to see is recognition from the government that these essential bills are causing problems for people.
"But also on utility bills to make sure that when people are forced into difficulty that the support is there from whoever they own that money to, to make sure they don’t have to borrow to pay that money back.
"We’ve seen obviously energy bills skyrocket. We’ve seen council tax go up 5% a year. It is a really difficult position and it can mean that people are going to have to make difficult sacrifices, or if they get an unexpected expense somewhere they will fall into problem debt."