Aurélien Fleurot 6:57 a.m., March 15, 2022, modified at 6:59 a.m., March 15, 2022
Faced with soaring energy prices, more and more French people are finding it difficult to pay their bills.
In 2021, the National Energy Ombudsman recorded 785,096 interventions by suppliers for unpaid invoices, up 17% compared to 2019.
The French are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their electricity bills.
In 2021, the National Energy Ombudsman recorded 785,096 interventions by suppliers for unpaid invoices, up 17% compared to 2019. Damien is one of those who can no longer cope with the soaring prices of energy.
“We can no longer turn on the heating”
When he left EDF for a competitor, he thought he would save money.
But, without regulated tariffs, prices changed very quickly and his monthly electricity bill almost tripled.
A schedule is set up with his energy supplier, who nevertheless ends up asking him for full payment in one go.
Result: no cuts, but an automatic drop in the power of its counter.
"They lowered the counter to the minimum of the minimum. I had twelve, they lowered it to me to three or five", he explains to Europe 1. "The mediator told me that they had the law. We can no longer turn on the heating otherwise the house will trip."
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Ensuring minimal access to electricity
If pure and simple cuts still represent a third of interventions, reductions of this type have increased by 65% in two years.
A lesser evil according to Frédérique Fériaud, director general of the Energy Mediator, who would like the end of cuts, even outside the winter break.
"I am pleading for the establishment of a minimum access system to electricity, which can guarantee all households in financial difficulty to have access to limited power to meet their essential needs", she defends on Europe 1.
If the 5.8 million beneficiaries of the energy check are protected from cuts, 25% of French households are having difficulty paying their energy bills.