Single-parent families, disabled households and Black families are bearing the brunt of the country’s energy debt crisis, according to new analysis of the government’s own official household survey, and newer research suggests the pressure is still growing.

The analysis, by Ana Castro and Jonathan Bradshaw at the University of York, draws on the Family Resources Survey 2024/25. The survey asked whether people had been in arrears with their gas, electricity or other fuels over the previous 12 months, and it found that 3.9% of households, around 1.1 million in total, had fallen behind.

Arrears ran at 14.3% among single-parent families, more than three times the national rate. The figures show 9.5% of Black, African, Caribbean and Black British households were behind, as were 6.6% of families with a disabled member, compared to just 1.9% where no one is disabled. Families with children were also far more likely to be in arrears than households without.

Regional variation was more modest, but clear differences emerged. Yorkshire and the Humber and Scotland recorded the highest rates, both at 4.9%, followed by the North East at 4.8% and London at 4.5%. Northern Ireland had by far the lowest rate at 1.0%, with the South East next lowest at 2.5%.

Because the Family Resources Survey is nationally representative, covering 16,077 households weighted to reflect nearly 29 million across the UK, the figures offer official confirmation of the scale of the problem. However, the analysis is a snapshot of the 2024/25 financial year and predates the 13.5% rise in the price cap that took effect on 1st July.

Meanwhile, the official debt mountain is already at record levels. Ofgem reported last month that debt owed to energy suppliers had reached a new high of £4.79 billion, up 5% on the previous quarter. The regulator counts a household as being in debt only once its arrears are more than 90 days old, so the true figure is likely to be higher still.

The figures come as energy companies across the sector reported another round of results. Shell posted adjusted earnings of £7.3 billion for the second quarter of 2026, its best result in four years and up 128% on the same period last year, while BP reported underlying profit of £4.2 billion, comfortably ahead of forecasts and sharply higher than a year earlier. Both attributed the surge to higher oil and gas prices driven by the conflict in the Middle East.

British Gas owner Centrica added a further £497 million in adjusted operating profit over the first half of the year, taking its total since privatisation four decades ago to more than £56 billion, while ScottishPower’s owner Iberdrola banked £909 million from its UK network monopolies over the same period.

More recent polling for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition suggests the pressure has since intensified. Opinium research carried out in June 2026 found that nearly a third of the population is now either in debt to their energy supplier or worried about falling behind.

Simon Francis, Coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “This new analysis lays bare who is paying the price for our broken energy system and should remind policy makers and regulators that this is a can’t-pay crisis, not a won’t-pay one.

“And this is a picture from last year. The number of households under strain is growing, not shrinking as the price shock profiteers extracting and selling the gas that drives our bills continue to post billions in profit.

“What’s worse, Citizens Advice recently found that network companies have been handed a £5 billion windfall by the very inflation that pushed families into debt.

“The long-promised energy debt relief scheme must now be brought forward and funded through energy company windfall profits, not added to consumer bills. The firms handed billions by this crisis should be first in line to help clear the debt mountain it created.”

Eva Watkinson, from Debt Justice, said: “This evidence from the government’s own figures is damning, and demolishes any idea that people in debt are choosing not to pay their energy bills. Debt is overwhelmingly concentrated amongst those least able to afford today’s persistently high energy prices – that single mothers, disabled people and Black British families, who are being forced into debt.

“Ofgem and the government have delayed action long enough. With a new Prime Minister in post, they must get serious. It’s time they deliver on the Debt Relief Scheme promised two years ago, funded by network company windfalls, not by adding more to our bills.”

BP profits

“BP has reported its highest quarterly profits since the first year of Russia’s war on Ukraine because of rising oil and gas prices caused by the Middle East crisis,” reports the Guardian today. “The oil company’s quarterly profits more than doubled to $5.73bn (£4.27bn) in the three months to the end of June, up $2.5bn from the quarter before.”

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, responded: “The price shock profiteers have banked more billions from a crisis that has created real hardship for millions of households. And now BP’s next move is to look to cash in and walk away from a North Sea where 90% of commercially viable fossil fuels have been extracted and the profits banked.

“The lesson is not to hand yet more tax breaks to an industry posting billions in profit every quarter, but to use Windfall Tax receipts to clear the record energy debt households built up during the crisis. 

“As bills remain far above pre-crisis levels, the route out of crisis means breaking the link between electricity prices and volatile gas, reforming electricity prices and providing support for people to improve their homes. In the meantime, we ask Ministers to also provide more support by further expanding the Warm Homes Discount and reforming Cold Weather Payments.”

Image: https://pix4free.org/photo/36555/cost-of-living-crisis.html. Cost of living crisis by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free