Citizens Advice is calling for energy companies to be banned from forcing customers onto prepayment meters to grab back debt built up as they struggle to pay their bills.
The charity estimates one household ran out of credit on their prepayment meter every 10 seconds last year, an estimated 3.2 million people overwhelmed by rising energy bills, food prices and inflation in the cost of living crisis. Prepayment - or pay as you go - meters only work if the customer pays for their gas or electricity before they use it, either via an app or adding credit to a card or 'key'.
Paying for your energy using this method is more expensive than paying by direct debit or cash after you have used the energy, but families sometimes have no choice if they have struggled to pay and are in debt to an energy supplier. Many rented properties also have prepayment meters.
Read more: Energy crisis: Can your energy company move you to a prepay meter to clear debt?
Citizens Advice has seen a 229% increase in the past year in the number of people coming for help who can't afford to top up and in 2022, saw more people who couldn't top up their prepayment meter than it did in the whole of the last 10 years combined.
Based on Ofgem figures, Citizens Advice estimates that around 600,000 people were forced onto a prepayment meter because they couldn't afford their energy bills in 2022 and predicts that another 160,000 more households could be moved onto a prepayment meter by the end of winter if no further action is taken.
Those who pay using this type of meter have no power unless they pay for it first, so if they have no credit left and are unable to afford to top up, they are unable to cook or heat their homes. This is known as self-disconnection, and Citizens Advice says it’s not just a one-off for most affected families, as more than two million people are being disconnected at least once a month.
Nearly one in five households who ran out of credit last year did not have energy for two days and included someone either disabled or with a long-term health condition and the the charity has previously raised concerns to Ofgem and the Government that suppliers were forcing people in these groups onto prepayment meters.
In October, Ofgem warned suppliers that not enough was being done to identify customers in vulnerable circumstances before installing a prepayment meter, but the following month, more than a third of prepayment meter households including a disabled person or someone with a long-term health condition, were cut off from their energy supply at least once, more than 470,000 struggling households left without energy.
The charity is calling for a total ban on forced prepayment meter installations until new protections are introduced, ensuring households can no longer be fully cut off from gas and electricity.
Newcastle Citizens Advice has previously warned of its fears that people could die in their cold homes as vulnerable families who have to pay for their energy in advance face winter.
"The energy price guarantee is £2,500 for an average home but the message we are getting is that this is massively unaffordable for some people, who are taking desperate - and dangerous - risks to keep warm," said a spokesperson from the CAB. "In winter 20-21, it is estimated that 6,000 people in England died as direct result of their homes being too cold, and energy costs then were around half of what they are now.
"At Citizens Advice Newcastle, we have seen more people who can't afford to heart their homes so far this year than the previous five years combined. It's shocking and desperate and we are worried that people are going to pass away simply because their homes are too cold.
"It is a terrible thing to have to say in 2022, but we are advising struggling families to concentrate on heating one room rather than the whole house to keep costs down, but please do not take risks with candles and old heaters," she said. "We are seeing a massive increase in people reducing the amount of money they are using to top up their meter or not topping it up at all, in other words self-disconnecting. This is very worrying and dangerous."
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