Prepayment meter customers will no longer be charged more for their energy under reforms to be announced in the Chancellor’s Budget, it has been disclosed. Jeremy Hunt will end the “prepayment premium” from July, saving around four million households £45 a year on their energy bills, according to the Treasury.
Households on pay-as-you-go meters are typically those on low incomes, yet they currently have to fork out more on average than direct debit customers because firms managing the meters pass on the costs to those who use them.
Mr Hunt said: “It is clearly unfair that those on prepayment meters pay more than others. We are going to put an end to that. From July four million households won’t pay more than those on direct debits. We’ve already cut energy bills by almost half this winter, and this latest reform is proof again that we’re always on the side of families.”
