The briefing, based on polling from YouGov, found that an estimated:

• 276,186 (6%) people have used commercial credit to pay energy bills this year
• 736,498 (16%) people have used commercial credit to pay for food this year
• 138,093(3%) people have used commercial credit to cover housing payments this year
• 138,093 (3%) people have used commercial credit to cover council tax payments this year.

The charity is running the “Stressed about Debt” campaign, which encourages people who are worried about their bills or stressed about debt to seek advice from the Citizens Advice network.

People can pick an advice route that works for them, such as online self-help tools, online advice pages or one-to-one advice from their local CAB.

The CAB service helps improve people’s financial situation and for some this includes debt write-off. Since last spring CABs have helped write off over £11 million worth of debt, with the average amount written off being over £12,600 per client.

CAS financial health spokesperson Sarah-Jayne Dunn said: “The cost-of-living crisis has seen the cost of essentials soar for people and what we are seeing across the Citizens Advice network, and now backed up by this research, is a worrying amount of people turning to commercial credit to cover these bills.

“For many people sticking the weekly shop on the credit card may be something that they don’t think anything of because they pay it back at the end of the month, but for many people covering bills like energy, rent or council tax through debt is something they have been forced into because their income doesn’t cover those bills.

“We want people who are stressed about their debts to seek advice and support from the Citizens Advice network. You don’t need to go to a CAB to get advice, instead you can check our online advice pages or use our interactive self-help tools.

“Our network gets real results for people – last year people who saw a gain having sought advice were more than £3,700 better off. Our advice is impartial, confidential and crucially free – we don’t charge for our advice and we never will.”