By Daniel Dunfordsenior data journalist

The number of people behind on their energy bills has increased in recent years – and the deeper you dig into the data, the worse things start to look and the more worrying a picture it paints for energy suppliers.

And, unfortunately, a worrying situation for suppliers usually means bad news for consumers – all of us.

As of June this year, according to the latest Ofgem data, there were 1.9 million electricity accounts and 1.5 million gas accounts in debt or in arrears, representing more than one in every household. 20 in the UK.

These figures are both up by around 400,000 over the past five years, an increase of a third for gas and a quarter for electricity. But both are down from June 2022 highs.

So things are bad in historical terms, but are they getting better? This is not the case when we start looking at what types of debt people owe and how much.

The number of accounts in “arrears” – meaning there is a debt owed, but no agreed repayment plan – has increased faster than the number of indebted accounts that have an agreed repayment schedule.

These unsettled debts are of greater concern for energy suppliers, as the uncertainty of repayments impacts cash flow, and they are at greater risk of not being repaid at all. They also require administrative work and time from companies.

The number of overdue electricity accounts has reached a record high – more than a million in total. The number of overdue gas accounts is at its second highest level and has remained consistently above 800,000 since September 2023.

What is even more worrying than the increase in the number of people falling behind on payments is the even faster rise in the average amount owed by people falling behind on payments – more than £1,300 for gas customers and £1,500 for electricity – both compared to around £1,300 for customers in arrears. 600 five years ago.

The ups and downs in the chart above generally indicate that people are falling into arrears during the winter before they can pay them off in the summer, when bills are lower.

But when the amount owed is so high, it becomes harder to build up enough of a surplus to get back into the black during the warmer months.

In total, the combination of more people owing debt and higher amounts owed by each person, the average money owed to electricity and gas companies has almost quadrupled since 2018 and increased by more than $1 billion. pounds sterling – the equivalent of 43% – over the past 12 years. month alone.

The total amount owed – now almost £4 billion – equates to around £130 per UK household.

This data highlights our article last week which showed that in addition to anger over the fact that winter fuel payments are no longer universal, there is also concern that the amount itself has not been increased for more than two decades.