This will help organisations to provide money and debt advice to customers, increase capacity through additional training for staff, and enhance engagement with energy suppliers to facilitate fairer and more sustainable debt solutions for customers.

Housing secretary Màiri McAllan announced the investment at the beginning of Talk Money Week, an annual campaign from the Money and Pensions Service to increase awareness of personal finance issues.

Ms McAllan said: “In an energy rich country like Scotland, nobody should be struggling to pay their energy bills. The UK Government said energy bills were going to come down, but they’ve only gone up and could rise further still.

“That underlines the importance of our investment in services that support those who are struggling the most.

“Advice agencies like Citizens Advice Scotland, Stepchange and Advice Direct Scotland, play a vital role delivering this support and we will continue to work closely with them to ease the burden of the cost of living and help those who need it.”  

The funding is part of a £16.9m package being invested in free income maximisation and debt advice.

Sharon Bell, head of StepChange Debt Charity Scotland, added: “Scotland is facing an energy debt crisis and more and more clients are coming to StepChange Debt Charity Scotland with spiralling energy arrears.

“We welcome this additional funding from the Scottish Government which is allowing us to provide vital energy debt advice to more people across Scotland right when it is needed the most.”