Seems a bit sensationalist; as this happened pre-energy crisis as the last resort debt recovery method
It’s also not hard for them to get the warrant as they own the meter
By Dean Kirby
Investigations Correspondent
Nearly half a million warrants allowing energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters in the UK’s poorest homes have been granted since Britain came out of the Covid lockdown, it can be revealed.
An i investigation has found that debt collecting agents acting on behalf of the nation’s biggest gas and electricity companies have been handed more than 490,000 warrants to force their way into properties since July 2021.
Since October last year, the number of warrants issued in England and Wales has risen by 18 percent.
i can also reveal how the warrants are being granted through an obscure court process in which magistrates who sign them off have little or no oversight of people’s vulnerability or health issues.
At one court in the North of England, magistrates signed off a single batch of 496 utility warrants in just three minutes and 51 seconds, as a debt agent representing several major energy firms dialled in by telephone.
Prepayment meters are controversial because they are a more expensive way to buy energy, and can leave customers facing a choice between self-disconnecting their electricity or being pushed deeper into debt.
I think its about time, that people on these pre payment meters, are legally required to be given the lowest tariffs for their energy.
Name and shame the magistrates, the ceo’s of these companies, the companies and locksmiths that carry out the work. We should all be flooding these companies twitter and Facebook and all social media with questions about what they are doing.
This is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for a long time.
5 comments
Seems a bit sensationalist; as this happened pre-energy crisis as the last resort debt recovery method
It’s also not hard for them to get the warrant as they own the meter
By Dean Kirby
Investigations Correspondent
Nearly half a million warrants allowing energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters in the UK’s poorest homes have been granted since Britain came out of the Covid lockdown, it can be revealed.
An i investigation has found that debt collecting agents acting on behalf of the nation’s biggest gas and electricity companies have been handed more than 490,000 warrants to force their way into properties since July 2021.
Since October last year, the number of warrants issued in England and Wales has risen by 18 percent.
i can also reveal how the warrants are being granted through an obscure court process in which magistrates who sign them off have little or no oversight of people’s vulnerability or health issues.
At one court in the North of England, magistrates signed off a single batch of 496 utility warrants in just three minutes and 51 seconds, as a debt agent representing several major energy firms dialled in by telephone.
Prepayment meters are controversial because they are a more expensive way to buy energy, and can leave customers facing a choice between self-disconnecting their electricity or being pushed deeper into debt.
I think its about time, that people on these pre payment meters, are legally required to be given the lowest tariffs for their energy.
Name and shame the magistrates, the ceo’s of these companies, the companies and locksmiths that carry out the work. We should all be flooding these companies twitter and Facebook and all social media with questions about what they are doing.
This is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for a long time.