80,000 Flemish Households on Energy Safety Net

A record 80,028 Flemish households were receiving electricity from network operator Fluvius at the end of 2025 after being dropped by their commercial supplier for non-payment, while another 62,384 received gas — together amounting to roughly 85,000 unique households now dependent on the region’s so-called social supplier safety net.

The figures, drawn from the Vlaamse Nutsregulator’s annual social report published in June 2026, mark the highest level since at least 2019 and come as a fresh surge in energy prices threatens to push more families into arrears.

A Safety Net That Is Expanding

As HLN, which first reported the municipality-level breakdown, explains, the system works as a last resort: when a household cannot pay its energy bill or breaches a repayment plan, the commercial supplier can terminate the contract. If the household finds no new supplier, Fluvius takes over as the standard supplier and installs a digital meter with a prepaid function, forcing customers to pay in advance for the electricity they consume.

According to the Vlaamse Nutsregulator, the figures represent a steady climb. Fluvius’s portfolio grew by roughly 600 households in 2025 to about 85,000, and the number of prepaid digital electricity meters reached 73,545, with 48,842 for gas. Nearly 89 percent of electricity clients and 78 percent of gas clients now use the prepaid function.

Statistiek Vlaanderen confirms that the 80,028 electricity households represent 2.7 percent of all domestic consumers, while the gas figure is 3.0 percent. In 2025, 1,943 households were fully disconnected from electricity and 1,608 from gas following advice from a local advisory committee.

Sharp Regional Disparities

The problem is far from evenly spread. Across Flanders, 2.5 percent of households had a prepaid electricity meter at the end of 2025, but the share reaches 9.4 percent in the West Flemish town of Mesen — the highest in the region — followed by Denderleeuw at 5.5 percent, Ronse at 5.3 percent and Spiere-Helkijn at 5.2 percent. In Ghent the figure is 3.8 percent, and in Antwerp 3.6 percent.

At the other end, municipalities in Flemish Brabant fare best: Glabbeek at 0.5 percent, Pepingen at 0.6 percent and Bierbeek at 0.7 percent. In total, 59 municipalities sit above the Flemish average, and 175 saw more prepaid users than the year before, while 38 improved.

The Nutsregulator also notes a striking shift in behaviour: about four in ten Fluvius clients are now debt-free yet choose to stay with the social supplier. Surveys suggest they lack trust in the commercial market, see prepayment as a crutch, or simply do not know how to switch back.

Prices Rising Again

The safety net is straining under renewed market pressure. According to Test-Aankoop, fixed gas contracts in Flanders rose 10 percent in September after already climbing 27 percent in August, translating to about 563 euros more per year for average consumption of 17,000 kWh. Fixed electricity contracts rose 4.5 percent, or roughly 194 euros a year for 3,500 kWh.

The driving force is geopolitical. The TTF gas benchmark stood near 65 euros per megawatt-hour in early September, about 90 percent higher than a year earlier, fuelled by the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East.

“For an average consumer there may be an extra 300 to 400 euros per year in the near future,” said Stefan Goemaere, a community worker at SAAMO, the Flemish organisation that has fought energy poverty for more than two decades. “And that is at a time when we have our highest gas consumption of the coming six months. With the current geopolitical tensions, I unfortunately see no price decreases in the coming months.”

Speaking to HLN, Goemaere described the difficult choices families face. “In practice we often see that the energy bill is one of the first items people shift,” he said. “People try to keep paying rent for as long as possible, because if they don’t, they risk ending up on the street. With energy there is a certain safety net.”

That safety net comes with its own hardship. Under the prepaid system, households must top up in advance, and Goemaere notes that people — especially in winter — often heat their homes only to 17 degrees because the budget will not stretch further.

A Structural Problem

Goemaere cautions that the rising headline numbers require nuance. Some of those counted are people who paid a day late, and the number effectively dropped by suppliers is not rising spectacularly — growth instead comes largely from debt-free households staying put.

Still, he argues the underlying cause is structural: energy poverty is tied to poor housing quality, particularly in the private rental market, where tenants cannot invest in insulation or heating upgrades. “Many people in our target group rent and cannot invest themselves,” he said. “They can make small changes, like installing LED lighting, but the structural cause — an old oil burner, an outdated gas boiler or the lack of a heat pump — they cannot change.”

For households at Fluvius that do not qualify for the social tariff, the CREG-set “deterrence tariff” follows high market prices and varies by region. SAAMO argues this does not deter but keeps people trapped in energy poverty longer.

Policy Under Pressure

The federal government plans to reform the social tariff into a transparent, income- and wealth-based flat-rate intervention that is budget-neutral — a proposal the ministers of energy and social affairs must table. SAAMO has warned that if more people are covered within the same budget, protection weakens. “The same cake is divided among more eaters, so everyone gets a smaller piece,” Goemaere said, advocating that the tariff remain linked to market rates.

On the Flemish side, Energy Minister Melissa Depraetere has pursued reforms aimed at lowering electricity costs, including changes to renovation support. As VRT News reported, the Flemish government agreed in September to cut subsidies for large solar parks, freeing 179 million euros to reduce electricity bills by an average of about 6 euros per family per year.

A broader energy tax shift is planned for January 2028, moving levies from electricity to gas and heating oil. As VRT News detailed, a standard household would pay 80 euros less for electricity and 80 euros more for gas — a net wash — while those with heat pumps stand to gain.

What to Watch

With winter approaching and prices still climbing, the coming months will test both the safety net and the political will to strengthen it. The number of households relying on Fluvius has risen every year since 2019, and the debt-free-but-staying trend suggests the exit back to the commercial market is narrowing.

“Above all, we must keep arguing hard for preserving the social tariff,” Goemaere said. “And we must look structurally at how we ensure people on low incomes end up in quality, well-insulated homes.” Whether policymakers translate that into action — before the winter’s highest gas consumption bites — remains the open question.