UK energy suppliers to end prepayment meter installation in vulnerable homes

theguardian.com:

All energy suppliers in the UK have pledged to end the installation of prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable customers, after damaging reports on how they were forcibly installed against people’s wishes, the government has said.

The Guardian reported last month that leading energy suppliers including Scottish Power, Ova and E.ON had stopped reclaiming debts from some prepayment meter customers. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which is being carved into three new departments, said that all energy firms had agreed to stop the practice.

As energy prices have soared, many people are struggling to pay their bills and have fallen into debt.

The department said it had asked all suppliers to set out how they were supporting their customers, how many warrants to forcefully enter people’s homes they had applied for and how they would make up for any wrongdoing.

The energy security secretary, Grant Shapps, found most suppliers were falling short on correcting their ways and said halting forced installation was “only the beginning” of fixing the “abhorrent” practice of forcibly fitting prepayment meters into vulnerable customers’ homes.

He said: “People will have understandably been shocked and appalled at how vulnerable people’s homes have been invaded and prepayment meters installed against their wishes – and suppliers are only at the beginning of correcting this abhorrent behaviour.

“Since those reports were published, I have demanded answers from suppliers, and Ofgem: all suppliers are now halting forced installations, magistrates are no longer signing off warrant applications and Ofgem are upping their game when it comes to their reviews.

“But I am angered by the fact some have so freely moved