NEARLY one in four people have recently skipped meals to save money, research has shown ahead of another energy bills hike announcement today.

Polling for the TUC found that 23 per cent of adults refused a meal while two in five avoided putting on their heating at least several times a month from March to June.

Nearly a quarter said that they have made large or significant cutbacks on food shopping in the last year, the YouGov survey found.

Regulator Ofgem is expected to confirm a four per cent energy cap rise from October today despite trade body Energy UK warning that current support measures are “inadequate” to tackle the £6 billion debt mountain facing millions of customers.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Households up and down the country are under the cosh. Too many are skipping meals, dipping into savings and having to cut back on life’s essentials.

“That’s why Andy Burnham is right to prioritise the cost of living. But the scale of the crisis means the government is going to have to keep going on measures to boost living standards — starting with a tax on banks’ enormous profits to cut energy bills for the majority of households.

“It’s plain common sense. Banks are raking it in while many up and down the country are struggling to get by — they can well afford to pay more tax to ease the pressure on working people.”

The polling also found that 35 per cent of adults had cut back on hot water usage for baths and showers at least several times a month to reduce their spending — and 15 per cent say they do this on most days.

More than a third did not use electrical appliances as often as needed regularly.

A fifth said that they had gone into debt once, a couple of times or several times because they had been unable to pay an unexpected bill in the last year.

Some 22 per cent reported struggling to afford their monthly costs while just over half said that they had to use their savings to cover their monthly costs in the last year. 

A quarter said they had gone into debt to pay for monthly expenses in the last year.