The number of people who have missed their electricity bills has risen from 1.31 million to 1.96 million - an increase of more than 600,000 bills, reports MoneyExpert.com.

Brits’ inability to keep up with their energy payments coincides with the rising costs of wholesale oil and gas, which energy suppliers have passed onto their consumers. In July, for example, British Gas announced they were going to put up the cost of gas by a 35% and electricity by 9%. The announcement was shortly followed with news that E.ON and Scottish and Southern Energy also planned to increase the cost of gas and electricity for their customers.

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British Gas Ups Prices by 35 Percent

Major Suppliers Increase Energy Charges

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It is the same story for gas payments, says the study - with 1.61 million Brits, compared to 1.16 million in the last 6 months of 2007, failing to pay their bills.

“Households are clearly feeling the strain with energy bills and other household bills going unpaid,” says Sean Gardner, Director of MoneyExpert.com.

“The fear must be that the number of missed bills will only rise as the full impact of energy price rises hits home in the winter.”

However, good news could be on the way – National newspaper, The Express, reports today that the price of gas and electricity is due to drop by 10% - slashing gas bills by £100 in time for Christmas.

Like petrol prices, the cost of wholesale gas and electricity are falling, easing inflationary pressures on the economy. As the wholesale costs of gas and electricity drops by 30%, energy providers are set to pass on these savings to consumers by the end of the year.

“We can only hope that the energy companies put their prices down as quickly as they put them up,” continues Gardner.

Unfortunately, energy bills are not the only payments being missed as the credit crunch begins to bite, continues the study. According to the research 2.58 million have not paid their council tax bills and 5.37 million have missed mobile phone payments, private rent and or council rent over the past 6 months.

Weekly food costs have also increased by 27% hiking yearly food bills to a staggering £1404, reports mySupermarket.co.uk. Read more: Yearly Food Bills Top £1400

Read more: How to Slash Your Energy Bills

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