As people are struggling to deal with the rising cost of living, views of online advice around support for billpayers to pay energy bills increased by 85% in December.

That’s according to the latest report by Citizens Advice Scotland, which suggests the number of people accessing webpages relating to ‘grants and benefits to help you pay your energy bills‘ was nearly five times higher than before the pandemic.

These figures follow worrying news of dozens of collapses in the energy retail market and the rise in the price cap in autumn 2021.

The charity also said that traffic to its web page related to ‘dealing with debts’ increased 44% in December compared to the previous month and 194% from December 2020.

Last week, Ofgem announced the new price cap revealing an increase of £693 on energy bills from 1st April.

On the same day, the government unveiled a £9 billion package of support to help customers cope with the energy crisis.

Later, Ministers were urged to scrap the postcode lottery for energy bills that make people living in different regions pay more for the same amount of electricity and gas they consume.