Elderly ladies make easy pickings. Single parents, the new recruit was told, are also a mainstay of the trade. So harden your heart to their pleading, even if they do have tiny children, because: “If every single mum that starts getting a bit teary you’re going to walk away from, you won’t be earning any bonus.” Just get yourself inside the house and fit that prepayment meter, even though it will cut off their gas if they can’t afford to keep their credit topped up, leaving them to shiver in the dark.
The advice above, given to a Times reporter working undercover for a company employed by British Gas to deal with customers falling behind on their bills, is spine-chilling, and yet it should come as no surprise. Three weeks ago, this newspaper reported a warning from Citizens Advice about vulnerable people – for whom energy suppliers are supposed to make exceptions – being inappropriately forced on to expensive pay-as-you-go meters after falling behind with electricity or gas bills.
