DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
With these new meters installed by the Government, Britons will be cut off from gas and electricity once their credit runs out.
ENERGY – As the UK, like the rest of Europe, suffers a dramatic rise in energy prices this winter, Britons are lamenting the installation of a prepaid gas and electricity system in the country. Set up by the government for bad payers, these devices, connected like Linky meters in France, have the originality of working with a credit system.
In particular, equipped users must purchase a prepaid card from the local grocer and then insert it into the meter or top up directly online. Otherwise it’s the cut. But the problem is that in the current context it costs them more than before.
High energy prices, fueled in particular by the war in Ukraine, are driving UK inflation to record highs of almost 11%, causing a severe cost of living crisis. According to a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, more than three million families cannot afford heating, and of these about 710,000 households cannot afford warm clothing or adequate food.
The government has set up an energy subsidy, but the two million users of old models of prepaid meters have to apply for vouchers to benefit.
Customers without electricity for “days”
In a north London area, freezing cold blankets terraced houses and snow-covered cars. In the living room of Samantha Pierre-Joseph, 40, a small fan heats the ambient air. The heating is switched off in the remaining accommodations. Due to a disputed debt of around £1,800 (more than €2,000), her energy supplier recently switched her automatically to a prepaid meter.
A few weeks ago, “I came home from shopping and looked at my meter,” a new connected device. “It showed a message that said ‘Recharge now,'” she told our colleagues at Agence France-Presse. There were about 3 books left before the cut. Like Samantha, more than 4 million homes in the country are now connected to gas and electricity through prepaid meters.
With energy prices soaring this winter, those customers are “the hardest hit” as they’ve seen the price increases being passed on “from day one,” laments Peter Smith, an official with the Energy Poverty Association NEA . Hundreds of thousands of additional consumers struggling to pay their bills could be switched to this type of meter this winter, several consumer groups believe.
When operators rarely turn off electricity to pay unpaid bills, the real risk is “self-shutdown: households just don’t have the opportunity to top up their energy meters and stop using,” describes Peter Smith. At the home where she lives with her 20-year-old daughter, Samantha Pierre-Joseph now counts every pound of electricity or gas she uses.
Apart from the refrigerator, “household appliances are switched off most of the time”. There’s a Christmas tree in one corner, but the garlands of light stay off. She only heats one room and always tries to cook for two days to save on cooking. Despite these efforts, she “loads at least 60 books every week,” she estimates, tapping the touchscreen of her meter.
” Fear “
The British energy regulator Ofgem considers the situation to be “completely unacceptable”. He recently reminded energy suppliers of their obligation to carry out a balanced check of the customers’ situation before they switch to a prepaid meter. “In some extreme cases (…) some vulnerable customers have been without power for days or even weeks,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP. Some opposition MPs have called on the government to suspend these meter changes.
For her part, Samantha Pierre-Joseph denounces a “very unfair” situation. In the end, she relented and repaid the claimed debt, but hopes to get it back. “It’s always those who have the least money who end up paying more,” she regrets. And then: “There’s this fear, after charging you see that the money is literally flowing, flowing, flowing,” says the psychotherapist by profession, who sees her few savings eaten up in this way.
See also on The HuffPost:
You cannot view this content for the following reasons:
- You have rejected cookies related to third-party content by logging in. You can therefore not play our videos, which require third-party cookies to work.
- You are using an ad blocker. We advise you to disable it to be able to access our videos.
If neither of these two cases applies to you, contact us at [email protected].