Chris Lees, Senior Research Officer, Money and Mental Health; Dan Weir, Research and Policy Manager, Money and Mental Health

5 February 2025

This policy note investigates the experiences of people with mental health problems who have fallen behind on their energy bills. It makes recommendations both to debt advice providers and to energy companies themselves as to how to better support those of us in vulnerable circumstances. 

With the cost of energy reaching historical highs, more and more people are struggling to afford their energy bills. In particular, those of us with mental health problems are more than twice as likely to be behind on energy bills. Demand on debt advice organisations is rapidly increasing, but our research shows that too often, energy suppliers and debt advice organisations are missing vital opportunities to offer compassionate and timely additional support to those of us with mental health problems. 

Our recommendations include:

• Energy firms and debt advice providers should take steps to make their services more accessible for people with mental health problems. This could include making it easier for customers and clients to disclose mental health problems, and streamlining processes for accessing advice and grants 
• Energy firms should ensure that their communications are supportive and accessible, including offering a range of ways for people to engage with the service..
• Support staff should be trained appropriately to understand individual circumstances and offer practical, realistic solutions.

Read the full policy note here.

This research feeds into a separate report published by our partners Impact on Urban Health, which sets out steps that the energy regulator Ofgem can take to spearhead a change in how the energy sector supports people in debt.