Campaigners have called for an immediate ban on pre-payment meter (PPM) installations through court warrants over fears that firms are using them to disconnect indebted customers “by the back door”.
Energy firms’ licence conditions protect many vulnerable people from formal disconnection over the winter, but the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said transferring households on to more expensive PPMs often prompted people in debt to “self-disconnect” and stop using energy. It raised concerns that firms were using PPMs “more often as a method of revenue protection”.
The coalition suggested that magistrates’ courts could be “rubber stamping” warrants to install meters, noting that freedom of information requests revealed 187,000 applications were made in the first six months of 2022, making it “difficult to believe” they were approved on a case-by-case basis.
