People struggling to pay their energy bills have turned to “dangerous” mechanisms with many going without heating.

Charities told MPs energy debt has reached extreme levels claiming thousands of lives last winter and the situation is set to get worse.

Ministers were told there were 4,706 excess winter deaths in England, Scotland and Wales last year due to “living in a cold damp home”. This was up from 3,186 from the previous winter.

Adam Scorer, chief executive of National Energy Action, called for urgent financial help from the Government as energy debt is “destroying lives”.

He said people have turned to “dangerous coping mechanisms” such as bathing in cold water, not having the heating on or even doing gambling, to make ends meet.

He said: “Whether they like it or not, the Government is going to have to come up with a package of financial support for energy bills for the most vulnerable this year.

“The level of energy debt is so extreme now, and it is destroying lives, that we have to have a mechanism, a help to repay scheme, that helps people to accelerate their way out of energy debt.

“We cannot get back on an even keel with a good way forward of dealing with energy affordability without tackling the 70 percent increase in energy debt from 2020 to 2023.”

The Government is providing several cost of living payments over this financial year, including a £900 payment in three instalments for those on certain means-tested benefits

Head of energy at Citizens Advice, Gillian Cooper, said her group had provided emergency help to 45,000 people last winter, a large increase compared to the previous year.

She said: “All the forecasts from our data are suggesting it’s going to get worse this year. The number of people in energy debt is increasing and the size of the debt has increased significantly.

“The number of people coming to us with energy debt at the moment – they’ve got an average of £1,170 – that is up.

“The cost-of-living crisis has been with us for a while now so households that had financial resilience at the start of the crisis, that financial resilience is now gone.”

Mr Francis added: “The signs are that people are going to be struggling more in cold, damp homes this winter.

“Essentially though what we end up with is a situation where we have to hope we have a mild winter, and I don’t think that households around the country would really accept that as being acceptable that they are expected to just hope that it’s mild and that they’re not going to suffer greatly as a result of the conditions they live in.”

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