Imagine you run a company supplying electricity and gas to households up and down the country. What would you do if, in the grip of a particularly cold winter, some of your most vulnerable customers couldn’t pay?
I would expect most decent people, or companies, would do all they could to help. Perhaps with a payment plan or free advice to help reduce costs. I would expect the wellbeing of their customers to be at the very heart of the decisions they make.
What I wouldn’t expect is for any company to act as viciously as British Gas and its contractor Arvato have done, as has been uncovered by The Times; by forcefully installing a machine in vulnerable customers’ homes that guarantees payment, with no consultation whatsoever.
