£750 warning for thousands of British Gas, EDF, EON, Ovo, Octopus customers

A £750 warning has been issued to one in three British Gas, OVO, EDF, EON and Octopus customers in debt to their energy firm or worried about falling behind, ahead of a 13 per cent jump in the price cap from July 1.

The warning comes as UK households face significant new costs. Customers with major energy companies are set to pay £221 more per year for gas and electricity from Wednesday, July 1. On pure unit rate levels, electricity will rise from 24.67p per unit to 26.11p per unit on average, while gas will increase from 5.74p per unit to 7.33p per unit. Five million customers are affected by the new price cap.

The human toll of the crisis is stark. Thirteen per cent of those in debt or worried about missing payments owed money to someone who makes them feel scared, rising to 24 per cent of those already in arrears. A third of those already in energy debt had tried to use less energy over the last 12 months by turning the heating off or taking shorter showers. One in four kept their home colder or warmer than was comfortable, and 21 per cent had missed rent or mortgage payments.

Household energy debt has doubled to £5.5 billion in recent years and could reach £7 billion by the end of this year, according to Ned Hammond, deputy director of customer policy at Energy UK.

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: "These figures lay bare the true cost of years of failure to fix energy debt caused by the sharp increases in bills. The figures also show that this is a can't pay crisis not a won't pay one. Very few people who are in energy debt are also in high-earning households. Instead it is ordinary people who are skipping meals visiting food banks and most alarmingly resorting to risky forms of borrowing just to keep the lights on."

Janine Michael, chief executive at the Centre for Sustainable Energy, said: "At the Centre for Sustainable Energy we speak to people every day who are struggling to keep up with their energy bills not because they won't pay but because they can't. The long-awaited energy debt relief scheme must be brought forward urgently."