Helping households to manage their bills

More support for services to help people struggling with energy bill debt.

Services that support people struggling with debt on their energy bills have been expanded after receiving almost £1 million of additional funding.

This will help organisations to provide money and debt advice to customers, increase capacity through additional training for staff, and enhance engagement with energy suppliers to facilitate fairer and more sustainable debt solutions for customers.

Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan announced the investment at the beginning of Talk Money Week, an annual campaign from the Money and Pensions Service to increase awareness of personal finance issues.

In an energy rich country like Scotland, nobody should be struggling to pay their energy bills.

The UK Government said energy bills were going to come down, but they’ve only gone up and could rise further still.

That underlines the importance of our investment in services that support those who are struggling the most.

Advice agencies like Citizens Advice Scotland, Stepchange and Advice Direct Scotland, play a vital role delivering this support and we will continue to work closely with them to ease the burden of the cost of living and help those who need it.

– MS MCALLAN

The funding is part of a £16.9 million package being invested in free income maximisation and debt advice.

Scotland is facing an energy debt crisis and more and more clients are coming to StepChange Debt Charity Scotland with spiralling energy arrears.

We welcome this additional funding from the Scottish Government which is allowing us to provide vital energy debt advice to more people across Scotland right when it is needed the most.

– SHARON BELL, HEAD OF STEPCHANGE DEBT CHARITY SCOTLAND

Background

£944,000 has been allocated equally between Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange Debt Charity and Advice Direct Scotland.

Talk Money Week runs from November 3 to November 7.

This year, the Scottish Government’s heat in building programmes are supporting over 20,000 households to save up to £500 on their energy bills. 

To further support with the cost of energy bills this winter, the Scottish Government will provide an estimated £28.3 million through the Winter Heating Payment, £11.4 million through the Child Winter Heating Payment, and £157 million through the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, after payment recovery from pensioners with a taxable income above £35,000.