'Fear of disconnection' sees parents switch to more expensive prepay energy meters
Warm Keep Than Without To Number Went Heating, While People, Home Year Unable Doubled People More 453,918 Conference Last The Heard To 377,000 Their Of
Parents hit by huge energy bills and fearing disconnection have been switching to higher-cost prepayment meters, leaving them unable to afford to pay for "vital parts of childhood" for their children.
A conference hosted by the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Dublin on Wednesday heard of the devastating impact of soaring energy costs on households across the country, with hundreds of thousands forced to go without heating over the last year.
The conference heard:
- The number of people unable to keep their home warm more than doubled last year to 377,000 people, while 453,918 went without heating;
- The Government will have to “take action” if energy companies do not cut their bills in the near future for hard-pressed households, according to Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan
- Stark findings in an unpublished survey compiled last month by the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs), with 49% of Mabs' clients reporting going without food in the last six months to cover bills, and 64% saying they had to borrow to cover essential costs;
- Energy regulator CRU expressing continued concern about high energy prices, and fears some people may not want to register as a vulnerable customer out of pride.
St Vincent de Paul research and policy officer Issy Petrie presented a report setting out a series of actions Government and the regulator could take in the short, medium and long term to mitigate the impact of “extraordinary energy prices” on people.
“As we speak, households are building up significant amounts of energy debt,” she said. “We had 1,200 requests for assistance every day in December.
One of the recommendations was for the Government to introduce a social energy tariff, targeted at households on means-tested social welfare payments.
Ms Petrie said vulnerable customers often could not afford to avail of discounts such as paying by direct debit and this would be a targeted measure towards those that need it most, highlighting examples of it being done in countries such as Belgium.
Barnardos national policy manager Stephen Moffatt said the clients they deal with are often paying the highest tariffs for energy.
“We’ve seen it in the last 12 months, it’s not necessarily that families are at risk of disconnection, it’s the fear of it,” he said. “What they’re doing to deal with that fear is making cuts so that their children are going without essentials of childhood.
“It’s borderline heartbreaking to see children go on without more things because their parents are so frightened they’ll get into some form of arrears, that they’ll go onto prepayment meters.”
Among the other recommendations was the benchmarking of social welfare supports with inflation, the creation of a new statutory customer advocacy agency and a new consumer protection strategy from CRU.