Struggling households across Tayside and Fife will be forced to go to community spaces for warmth and rely on food banks this winter in a fresh warning about soaring energy prices.
Kate Dean, from Citizens Advice Scotland, raised the alarm a week after new prime minister Liz Truss announced an emergency energy price cap of £2,500 a year until 2024.
Ms Dean delivered the warning on The Stooshie – the politics podcast from DC Thomson.
The UK bills cap had been expected to rise to £3,549 for a typical household from October.
Although the new cap is £1,000 less than the initial projection, it is still significantly more than what people were paying last winter for their gas and electricity – on average just £1,277.
One of our own advisers came in the other day to say his direct debit had gone up by 290%, which is a scary figure.
– Kate Dean
With less than a month until this new cap comes in, Ms Dean said: “People are already struggling and they will continue to struggle.
“They are coming to use because they are just not finding the money to keep up with the bills.
“We are seeing a lot more referrals to food banks and people saying they can’t top up their pre-payment meters.”
She said people on fixed incomes, such as pensioners and benefits claimants, are particularly struggling.
High bills in Courier Country
Ms Truss’s energy cap is based on a “typical household” which the UK Government defines as using 12,000 kWh of gas and 2,900 kWh of electricity a year.
But if you use more gas or electricity than this, you will need to pay more than the £2,500 the prime minister announced last week.
Some places in Scotland are already paying more than £2,500.
Average bills before the cap was announced were already £2,662 in Perth and Kinross, £2,482 in Angus, £2,296 in Fife and £2,197 in Dundee.
Ms Dean said: “Many of us are used to having to pay more for our gas and electricity than the average.
“One of our own advisers came in the other day to say his direct debit had gone up by 290%, which is a scary figure.
“We need to be talking about individuals here because it is difficult and dangerous to generalise.”
Leave home during the day
Ms Dean – who was an Aberdeen city councillor until 2012 – suggested people may have to resort to tactics she last experienced as a student.
“I remember back in my student days in Aberdeen I did my studying in the Winter Gardens in Duthie Park because it was warm there,” she said.
“That’s a bit extreme, but people can meet with their friends to go somewhere warm so they are not having to heat their homes.
“People might need to look at things like that to get through the long and dark winter.”
Ms Dean said anyone who is worried about their energy bills this winter should contact their local Citizens Advice Bureau.
You can listen to The Stooshie politics podcast here.