Energy prices: People in NI 'desperate' over rising costs, says charity

The St Vincent de Paul charity has said people are feeling "desperate" over energy costs this winter.

In September the charity received 1,600 calls for help or support.

It said it saw more than a 150% increase for requests for help with oil in their Belfast office in August/September.

Substantial increases in the cost of electricity and gas from some suppliers came into effect on Saturday.

SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland and Click Ireland all raised their electricity price by about a third, while gas from SSE Airtricity went up by 28%.

All households will get a £400 energy support discount in November.

Domestic gas and electricity unit costs will also be capped from the 1 November in Northern Ireland, backdated to cover October.

Mary Waide from St Vincent de Paul told BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday with Steven Rainey programme that more and more people were getting in contact with them.

"People really are desperate. They simply haven't enough money to pay for their heating and energy costs and food," she said.

"We have found a big increase in requests for energy - that's electricity, gas and oil," she explained.

"We have a 30% increase in requests coming into the Belfast office," she said

"In four weeks 1,600 people have approached us asking for help," she added.

"In August/September, calls about oil are at a 158% increase, electricity at a 20% increase and gas at a 24% increase".

She said it was the "worst time" she had experienced in 20 years.

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"One mother was coming at the end of every third week and she managed for the three weeks but the fourth week came and she had nothing - neither heat nor food," she added.

She also said the charity feared there were people who needed help but did not want to come forward and she urged anyone in that situation to know it wasn't their fault.

'Only the start'

She said she had noticed an increase in the amount of warm clothes being bought from the charity's shop.

"People this year are getting ready for a hard winter - they are looking for heavy blankets, fleeces and boots and are really stocking up on things that previously there would not have been a big demand for at this stage.

"This is only the start - we have had quite mild weather so we are expecting a deluge of requests."

Protesters in Belfast were calling for the government to do more to help with rising bills

On Saturday tens of thousands of people in Northern Ireland rushed to purchase energy top-ups before big prices rises kicked in.

PayPoint, which operates the top-up card system, described the rush for top-ups on Friday as "unprecedented".

It said one retailer in Northern Ireland processed 45,000 energy top-ups on Friday - it usually does about 5,000.

Some retailers struggled as they hit their daily quota of energy sales - that was despite sales limits being quadrupled in recent weeks.

PayPoint said the fact that some shops could not sell top-ups was not due to a technical issue.

Which bills are increasing?

Electricity

• Click Energy, 1 October, 28.2%

• SSE Airtricity, 1 October, 35.4%

• Electric Ireland, 1 October, 29%

• Budget Energy, 7 October, 32%

Gas

• SSE Airtricity, 1 October, 28.3%

• Firmus Energy Gas (Ten towns and Greater Belfast), 3 October, 56.3%

A crowd gathered at Belfast City Hall on Saturday to protest against the cost-of-living crisis, while smaller protests went ahead in other cities and towns.

The Belfast rally was organised by the Cost of Living Coalition and coincided with dozens of similar demonstrations across the UK.