“My inbox is full of energy debt issues. There’s just so much. People can’t afford to use energy like they used to and they can’t afford to pay arrears.” 

In a recent conversation with a group of energy advisers from Scottish CABs, this was the opening remark. It was met with nods of recognition from everyone, the unavoidable reality of working in energy advice today.

My role is to try to influence change, so as global events delivered another blow to a broken energy system, I met with the advisers to get a deeper sense of how things were feeling for them and the people they support. The sense of anxiety about steep increases in the energy price cap from July and beyond was tangible.  

For people coming to local CABs, whose budgets are already beyond stretched, "tightening belts"........

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