The Times newspaper is reporting this morning that debt collectors working on behalf of British Gas are routinely breaking into people’s homes to install prepayment meters.
The debt collectors force fit the pay-as-you-go meters even when customers are known to have extreme vulnerabilities.
According to The Times:
An undercover reporter worked for Arvato, a company used by British Gas to pursue debts, amid rocketing energy prices and more customers falling behind with their bills.
The reporter accompanied debt agents in below-freezing conditions as they worked with a locksmith to break into the home of a single father of three young children and switch it to a prepayment meter. If families with these gas meters cannot afford to top up, their heating is cut off.
On another occasion agents were sent by British Gas with a court warrant to force-fit a meter at the home of a young mother with a four-week-old baby. Her bills have risen sevenfold during the cost of living crisis.
According to job notes seen by The Times, other British Gas customers who have had prepayment meters fitted by force in recent weeks include a woman in her fifties described as “severe mental health bipolar”, a woman who “suffers with mobility problems and is partially sighted” and a mother whose “daughter is disabled and has a hoist and [an] electric wheelchair”.
After being approached for comment, British Gas suspended the practice of force-fitting prepayment meters. It began an investigation into the “deeply concerning” findings, adding: “This is not who we are — it’s not how we do business.”
Last month Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said it expects to report a more than sevenfold increase in net profits for last year after benefitting from volatile energy prices.
Grant Shapps, the business and energy secretary, has ordered an urgent meeting in the coming days with British Gas and said ministers would be “demanding answers to ensure this systemic failure is addressed”.
He said: “I am horrified by the findings of this investigation and would like to thank The Times for shining a light on these abhorrent practices.”
Last month Shapps wrote to energy companies warning them to stop force-fitting prepayment meters, but the undercover reporter found that British Gas has continued.
Energy companies can apply to magistrates’ courts for warrants to force entry into customers’ homes and fit a prepayment meter if they have fallen behind on bills.
The customers can then only use their supply if they top up, by visiting a shop with a card, or through a smartphone app. British Gas typically then takes £6.50 per week from the top ups as repayments — and hundreds of pounds extra is added to the customer’s bill to cover the debt collectors’ costs.
