A mum-of-four has recalled how she returned how from a hospital appointment to find British Gas had installed a prepayment gas meter in her home - despite her being a vulnerable customer.
Jaki Whyte, 41, from Colchester, arrived home in November 2021 to find the meter door "ripped off" and a note posted through her letter box telling her to call British Gas.
She spoke to Mirror Money today after an investigation by the Times revealed that British Gas "routinely" sends debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit pay-as-you-go meters, even when they are known to have extreme vulnerabilities.
She said: "I was in absolute hysterics, I didn't even know how to top up a prepayment meter.
"I had to go to my best friend's house to help calm me down and to call them because I didn't have credit. I just didn't know what was going on."
Jaki has 11 diagnosed disabilities and mental health conditions, which include Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, fibromyalgia, autism, and arthritis, and has been on the Priority Services Register for over ten years.
She was always classed as a "low energy user" and had never been in debt before paying her energy bill by standing order.
Previously she was able to cover her monthly costs with her Personal Independence Payment (PIP) money and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
However, Jaki had her ESA payment stopped several years ago after she was unable to attend her "fit to work" assessment because her local test centre was not wheelchair accessible.
After her ESA was stopped, she struggled to stretch her £600 PIP payment to cover her monthly costs.
She said: "I had to prioritise my health above anything else, so my PIP money was used for taxis to get me to the hospital and I needed to save up to buy my NHS Prescription Prepayment Certificate so I could get my medicine.
"Something had to give and it was paying my gas because a just didn't have the money."
Jaki started to receive letters from her energy provider telling her about the debt which was building up.
However, she admitted she often missed these letters and would struggle to read them due to her mental health disabilities.
Jaki told the Mirror she had explained her situation to British Gas and asked them to contact her over the phone for everything regarding her account - but said this did not happen.
She said she "tried her best" to contact the energy firm to sort out a payment scheme to clear the debt but was often left on hold for so long that she ran out of credit on her pay-as-you-go phone.
When she did get through, she claimed British Gas asked for payments four times higher than she could afford.
She said: "There just seemed to be no acknowledgement or consideration of my situation and they wouldn't budge, there was literally no debate about it at all even though I was on the Priority Service.
"I said I could do an extra £5 a month to help clear it, which would lose me a day of food but they wanted £20 and I couldn't do it, I didn't have the money."
This winter was Jaki's second with the gas prepayment meter and she says she only "managed to survive" because of the electric blanket her best friend had got her.
She said: "It's been awful, for half of the month I have had to wash my hands in cold water, have cold showers and my carer has had to boil the kettle to do the washing up, genuinely the only thing that has kept me alive is my electric blanket."
Jaki said this winter has been "even harder" than the last due to rising costs but also because she also did not receive the £650 Cost of Living payment as claimants of PIP were not included.
She also lost her £150 Warm Homes Discount payment this year, but did receive the one-off £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment.
Jaki faced having her electricity meter changed into prepay six weeks ago however she was able to argue against the installation happening saying that it would be the difference between "life and death".
She described British Gas' prepay installation practice as "callous" and said its pause on forced installations should be made a permanent measure.
Jaki said: "I understand the theory behind prepayment meters but in practice, it just does not work, the fact you can have 90% of your payment taken to cover debt is absolutely disgusting and should not be allowed, it just causes more debt."
A British Gas spokesperson told the Mirror: "We’ve been contacting Mrs Whyte since 2018 to help her manage her energy bills.
"We appreciate her difficult situation and we’ll be in contact with her to see what kind of assistance we can put in place."
