The charity Citizens Advice has for the third month in a row broken its record for providing crisis support.
This month the charity has so far referred 24,752 people to food banks or to other charitable support – up by 44% compared to the same time last year.
The charity predicts that after today’s energy price cap increase around five million people will be unable to pay their energy bills.
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: ‘The energy price cap rise will be potentially ruinous for millions of people across the country. It comes just as another new, bleak record is set for people needing crisis support from Citizens Advice.
‘The support announced so far from the government simply isn’t enough for those who’ll be hit hardest. With the long-anticipated price rises now hitting, many more people will face the kind of heart-rending choices that our frontline advisors already see all too often.’
