In response to the UK Government’s recent request, the Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps has today claimed all energy suppliers have now committed to ending the forced installation of prepayment meters in vulnerable customers’ homes. The Government also recently asked all suppliers to set out how many warrants suppliers had previously sought and plans to compensate vulnerable customers for any wrongdoing.
Adam Scorer, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) says:
“The Secretary of State is right to push for urgent action to protect vulnerable consumers. An immediate halt to forced installation of prepayment meters must be followed quickly with clarity on how many vulnerable households shouldn’t have had these meters installed, a suitable compensation package imposed by Ofgem, and then a full review of the prepayment market to see whether or not it can work for consumers and not just for suppliers.
“There are over four million households in England and Wales on a prepayment meter. They’ve had the rough end of the energy market for far too long and many have struggled most to redeem UK Government support during the energy crisis. There are ways of making prepay work better for households who want, or need, to control their energy costs, but unless we see a huge shift in how prepayment works, this part of the energy market will remain wholly unfit for purpose, continuing to fail struggling households.”
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National Energy Action (NEA) is the national fuel poverty charity who works across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure everyone can live in a warm and safe home. For the number of people in fuel poverty please go to www.nea.org.uk/energy-crisis.
If this story goes online, please link to www.nea.org.uk/energyhelp.
If you tweet, we are @NEA_UKCharity
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