In the first ten months of last year, there were nearly 4.2 million household disconnections that took place across the US.

That’s according to a new report by the Center for Biological Diversity, Energy and Policy Institute and BailoutWatch, which suggests that utilities in the US have disconnected customers an estimated 5.7 million times since 2020.

The study has found that power disconnections have increased by 29% while gas disconnections have soared by 76% from January to October 2022, compared to the same period in 2021.

Researchers stress that many US states with notable increases in disconnections saw average utility bills increase – Missouri, Kentucky and Arizona saw their energy bills jump by up to 24%

The authors of the report suggest that if utilities spent just 1% of their spending on dividends for shareholders, all these power shutoffs could have been prevented.

It is estimated that companies spent $2.8 billion (£2.2bn) on salaries for approximately 70 top executives – an average of around $5.9 million (£4.7m) per executive per year.