Why Tuesday is 'April Cruel Day' as collection of 'devastating' bill hikes hit

The 1st of April has traditionally been a time for practical jokes. Sadly, April Fool’s Day has now earned the additional title of April Cruel Day, for reasons that are anything but funny.

The second name is based on the fact that April sees the start of the new financial year. It’s the day when the newly up-dated bills of many suppliers - including energy companies, broadband and phone suppliers, landlords and, of course, council tax offices - will come into effect. And the vast majority of these will likely see increases.

Bills are going up en masse from April 1 | Danny Lawson/PA Wire

In one sense fair enough, right? Business is business and every year sees additional costs. There’s nothing new in that. It’s just the way of the world.

Except, no. What’s happening now is that bills are getting much, much bigger and at the same time, household incomes are stagnating or being cut. That’s where the cruelty comes in. Asking people to pay more and more when they have less and less.

It’s important to note how many people are already struggling before the new bills even hit. Every day, advisers across the Citizens Advice Scotland network support people who will attest that the cost-of-living crisis is nowhere near over.

Indeed, the language and understanding of ‘cost-of-living’ has long been inadequate. It doesn’t really describe the process by which existing inequality has been exacerbated and entrenched over the last few years. For some, yes, it might be a case of ‘look at the price of a bottle of olive oil’. But it’s also about parents going hungry to prioritise food for their children. The cumulative impact of the wave of new bills that’s about to hit those people is going to drive many households under.

There is a housing emergency in Scotland, and we’ve been seeing increased demand for advice on rent arrears and homelessness. Thankfully there have been some protections for tenants on rent rises, but the temporary modifications to the rent adjudication process end tomorrow. Many people fear they’re about to see big spikes in rent that they cannot afford.

Then, of course, there’s energy. We’ve seen three price cap rises on the bounce. The average bill from next week will be £1,849 per year – a 6.4 per cent rise. Rising prices have forced more and more people into energy debt. The people who come to CABs [citizen advice bureaus] seeking advice are already on average £2,500 in debt: more than a year in arrears. Another hike will be devastating.

Council tax is going to be a big one this year. We’ve all seen the media reports of how Scotland’s councils plan to increase their charges – most by 8-10 per cent, but some by as much as 15 per cent now that they’re free to do so. Council tax debt is already the most common type of debt CABs deal with each year, and our fear is these rises could further increase numbers of people falling into debt or falling further into debt.

And if we’re talking cruelty, we can’t neglect to mention the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday, with its scathing cuts to the welfare budget, including social security payments that are for sick and disabled people.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 26: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, leaves 11, Downing Street to deliver her Spring Statement to Parliament on March 26, 2025. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

The UK government’s own assessments predict these actions will push 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 here in Scotland. In a just and compassionate society, none of us want to see anyone forced into poverty.

Two thirds of the people we see in Scottish CABs are sick or disabled. People are scared and uncertain about the future, and our advisers are bracing for the fallout of yet another wave of welfare reform, which will see the incomes of those already experiencing the worst of poverty reduced. Hunger, hardship and harm will rise.

So how do we take the ‘cruel’ out of April 1st? It certainly won’t be easy, but there are things that can certainly be done in each of these areas that would begin to bring things back to a semblance of normality and fairness.

On rents, we’ve called for the Scottish Government to extend the temporary rent adjudication measures and offer better protections to tenants. And we’re continuing to work with the Government on the upcoming Housing Bill, which is an opportunity to make important changes.

On Council tax, we urge councils to do everything they can to help mitigate against the effects of the increases and to help residents meet the costs. This includes maximising efforts to raise awareness and increase the take-up of the council tax reduction scheme. Councils could also consider a pause in debt recovery to allow those struggling to get income maximisation support to help with repayment.

On energy, we’ve long called for an affordable social tariff. Our energy market is completely broken and fails to serve in the interest of people on the lowest incomes, or with unavoidably high usage. There is currently talk of an energy debt relief scheme, which we would welcome. However, it needs to be robust and meaningful. Again, it should include debt write-offs where appropriate and a more compassionate approach to people who are in arrears.

And in terms of welfare, the UK government simply needs to understand that it has got things badly wrong with these latest cuts and reverse them as soon as possible. However vast the hole in our economy, the burden of filling it should not fall on the sick and disabled.

We need more investment in social security, not less, and we urge the UK government to prioritise delivering on its review of Universal Credit, removing the policies that cause destitution by design.

These kinds of measures would go some way to helping ease the cumulative burden of all the new April bill charges in future years. If steps like these are properly taken, we could return to the time when the worst thing about April 1st was someone telling you that your shoelaces are untied when they’re not.

Derek Mitchell, is chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland