The Scotsman

Energy market ‘too complicate­d’ for consumers amid fuel poverty spike

- By JANE BRADLEY

The energy market is too complicate­d for consumers to navigate and needs to be simplified, the head of a lobbying group to end fuel poverty has declared.

Norman Kerr, director of Energy Action Scotland, told Citizens Advice Scotland’s (CAS) annual conference that people did not understand the various benefits and options available to them.

Speaking in a panel discussion at CAS’S Resolving Energy Consumers’s Problems event in Edinburgh yesterday, a speaker from CAS also raised the possibilit­y of following the Irish model of an energy bill benefit for people on longterm benefits.

Mr Kerr told delegates: “We have given consumers such a myriad of choices that they are often not well equipped to understand. The consumer needs to understand what we are doing with them, not to them.

“We are still missing the point. It has got to be simple. It has got to have the ability for people to grasp what is happening.”

Kate Morrison, energy team manager at CAS, said that in Ireland customers who receive long-term benefits are given a government payout.

She said: “This is arguably a good opportunit­y for Scotland at the moment.”

The latest official figures showed 649,000 Scottish households were classed as being in fuel poverty in 2016.

 ??  ?? 0 Kate Morrison: payouts for those on long-term benefits
0 Kate Morrison: payouts for those on long-term benefits

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