Debt Solicitors

During a press release in 2004, the Ofgem Managing Director for Corporate Affairs, John Neilson, said: “Some vulnerable customers use prepayment meters and many of them are missing out on valuable savings. We have worked hard to remove the barriers that prepayment customers face when trying to switch supplier. However, many prepayment customers are still losing out because they have not switched”.

It was apparent then that pre-payment meters were a costly method of fuel payment, and venerable customers, those on receiving social security or those living under the poverty line were being urged to switch and save.

So what’s happened since then?

In 2010, the National Housing Federation (NHF) - the governing body for England’s housing association - revealed that a great swathe of “hard-up families” using pre-payment meters were overcharged by as much as £464 million between 2006 and the end of 2009.

Figures from fuel poverty charity National Energy Action show there are almost 6 million pre-payment meters in homes across Britain; with 14% of households paying for their electricity on pre-payment tariffs, and 10.4% on gas pre-payment tariffs.

Even Ofgem statistics found that pre-payment meter customers are charged on average £189 a year more for their energy than customers with standard meters signed up to online tariffs who pay their bills by monthly direct debit, and you’re looking at a huge wad of cash reaching the pockets of the “big six”.

So who are these big six?

The “big six” are; British Gas, EDF Energy, EON, NPower, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power. However, my attention has remained on EDF Energy as a flurry of complaints from a handful of clients; particularly venerable consumers on benefits have circled this supplier like vultures in the desert sun.

EDF Energy employs over 11,000 people, and supplies gas and electricity to over five million customer accounts. It is one of the largest regulated and private networks operators in the UK, and distributes electricity to over a quarter of the country's population.

EDF Energy have indicated that there pre-payment bills for a typical customer, whether on a duel-fuel, electricity-only or gas-only tariff, are on average currently the cheapest of any of the main six suppliers.

I find this assertion troubling especially since more than 10 of my clients have complained that only after a couple of days of placing £10 on their pre-payment card they have been forced to top up there cards with more money, or risk living without heat or gas until they can afford to rack up some spare cash so that they can top up their card. The cycle continues as they will then have to face the inevitable of topping up again in a few more days or risk living without heat or gas.

Simon Green, EDF Energy Director of Customer Services for the South West, said: “EDF Energy has led the industry in taking action to support our customers at risk of fuel poverty”. He said that they were the first company to introduce a social tariff for our most vulnerable customers, a trust fund for customers in serious household debt and the first to level out pre-payment meter tariffs with customers paying by cash or cheque for electricity.
What I have found to be the most troubling is that those clients who have fallen into arrears with the fuel bill, particularly those receiving social security have indicated that EDF Energy have given them no choice in the matter, they were told by their provider that as they received benefits and had owed EDF Energy a sum of arrears, they would be automatically placed on the pre-payment meter. Surely the method of payment is at the consumer’s discretion?

Upset and very troubled my clients have voiced out that although they acknowledge that they have a debt to pay EDF Energy, with the pre-payment meter they are never told how much is left to pay, but are generally told by EDF Energy that the arrears will be taken from the pre-payment card when it has been topped. They are also told to ensure that they have enough money to pay for their current use of fuel and the arrears outstanding because otherwise they will be without power.

As for those clients who dispute ever being in debt with their EDF Energy, utility bills are never entitled to the opportunity to dispute the debt. EDF should have to prove that the debt exists before setting it to be paid back through the meter.