Over 4 million people in Germany struggle to pay electricity and gas bills on time
Clean Energy Wire
Around five percent of Germany's population (4.2 million people) reported being late in paying their utility bills in 2024, according to figures by the country’s statistical office Destatis. Tenants were hit particularly hard, with 6.4 percent struggling to pay their electricity or gas bills on time, the office said based on a survey on income and living conditions.
Utility bills increased sharply in 2022 after the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the related energy crisis. While prices for electricity, petrol, fossil gas or heating oil have come down since then, they remain relatively high, said Destatis. The share of the population defaulting on their utility bills was broadly unchanged from 2023 (5.4%).
The energy transition is placing an uneven financial burden on Germany's poorest households, which spend a bigger share of their income on energy and water bills. These households need more state support to tackle energy poverty, a report by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) said recently. The authors found that low-income households are "unable to react sufficiently to rises in fossil fuel costs, for example as a result of CO2 pricing, by investing in energy-efficient refurbishment or renewable heat."
Transition costs related to heating are impacting these citizens much more than in other sectors such as transport, according to an analysis by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).
