It's estimated that British households owe almost £19bn in utility bills, missed council tax payments and overpaid benefits, according to Citizens Advice.

Since 2014, it has been more common for people to seek help from the charity for household bill debts, such as council tax or energy bill arrears, than for problems related to credit debts.

Last year, Citizens Advice helped people with 690,000 household bill debt problems, compared with 350,000 consumer credit issues.

In total, water companies are owed £2.2bn by consumers falling behind with their bills, with electricity and gas providers owed almost £1.1bn.

The majority of household bill debts are priority debts, meaning that people face strong collection practices such as evictions, which can have serious knock-on effects.

Read more: Citizens Advice, and the Hidden Debts report [pdf]