OFGEM’S new prepayment meter rules “fail to deal” with the energy debt mountain facing struggling households, campaigners have warned, as the watchdog revealed a new code of practice for suppliers today.
The body said that energy firms in England, Scotland and Wales had agreed to the code, which includes a ban on forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of people over the age of 85.
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End Fuel Poverty Coalition coordinator Simon Francis also said the code does not go far enough, and that the voluntary aspect “undermines its objective.”
He said: “There are really vulnerable groups which have been omitted from its full protection and we have serious concerns about how it will be implemented, such as how people will prove their medical conditions without being humiliated by an energy firm health inspection.
“The plans also fail to deal with the elephant in the room — the growing household energy debt mountain.”
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