[ad_1]
Campaigners have called for an immediate ban on court-warranted pre-payment meter (PPM) installations because energy suppliers are using them to disconnect the poorest, most indebted customers “through the back door”.
Energy companies’ license conditions protect many vulnerable people from formal disconnection in winter, but the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said transferring households to PPM, which requires regular top-ups and charges higher rates for energy, often leaves people are induced to incur debt. “Self-Disconnect”.
The organisation, which represents 60 organisations, made up of anti-poverty charities, health campaigners, local authorities, unions and consumer organisations, said 20,000 households a month are currently being moved to PPM as energy companies seek to protect their incomes.
For cash-strapped households, moving from credit meters to PPM can mean the difference between having heating or not, as they suddenly have to pay for energy up front with money they don’t have.
Earlier this month, Citizens Advice warned that it had seen more people unable to top up their prepayment meters in the first nine months of 2022 than in the previous three years combined.
The coalition is concerned that magistrates’ courts are “rubber stamping” warrants to install PPMs, noting that freedom of information requests showed that 187,000 applications were made in the first half of 2022, making it “hard to believe” they would be approved in the case. were done. -On a case-by-case basis.
Energy suppliers are remotely switching smart meters from credit to pre-payment mode and failing to follow proper procedures, including assessing households for vulnerabilities to ensure PPM is safe to install, the coalition said.
The industry denies this, but last year more than 152,000 households with smart meters were switched to more expensive PPM schemes by their energy supplier, with 60,000 households making the switch in the last three months alone, according to Ofgem’s latest figures.
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition is advising customers who are approached by their energy supplier about a PPM installation to speak to the Good Law Project, which may want to challenge the transfer.
It called on the government and Ofgem to ban customers from switching to PPM under warrant without “active, informed, customer consent”.
Ruth London of Fuel Poverty Action said: “Introducing pre-payment meters is a back door disconnect. When you can’t top-up the meter, everything stops, whether you’re old, sick or have a newborn baby.
“Prepayment should be a voluntary option. Imposing it is violent, and under current conditions it is likely to increase the number of excessive winter deaths.”
Joe Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project, said: “Utility companies are repeatedly failing their supplier responsibilities and customer protection rules, and are already being overburdened with court applications for thousands of warrants every month to enforce them. A way to get into people’s homes to fit pre-payment meters. This is unacceptable and we are looking for legal avenues to stop it.
Energy UK, which represents energy companies, said suppliers need to exhaust all other options and follow a series of checks before installing prepayment meters by warrant.
“Prepayment meters are a way to help consumers monitor and budget for their energy use but suppliers are acutely aware of the challenges millions of consumers are facing right now. There are difficult decisions to be made around indebted customers as suppliers also need to try to prevent them from falling further into arrears and although any increase in bad debt will ultimately have to be recouped from customers’ bills.”
[ad_2]
Source link
