The energy regulator has announced tougher rules on prepayment meters. Sky News has spoken to a resident about the experience of having one forced on her home.
It was a neighbour who first alerted Mary that workers from her energy company had been inside her house.
She’d just returned from work. Footage filmed on her doorbell camera confirmed that after knocking on her door, they’d used a drill to let themselves in.
Mary isn’t her real name and we’ve agreed to protect her identity as she doesn’t want people she works with to find out what happened.
She’d been struggling to keep up with energy payments that had more than quadrupled. But she says she’d been in regular contact with her supplier, providing them with meter readings and paying what she could.
She says knowing they’d been into the house that she owns in Birmingham, where she lives alone, made her feel violated.
“I felt as though I’d been burgled,” she says. “I felt unsafe. It just didn’t make any sense to me as to why they needed to take that action. I was corresponding with them.”
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How do prepayment meters work?
Once inside, an issue with wiring meant they couldn’t go ahead and fit the meter. But she was left with a note warning they would come back.
“For a week I didn’t actually leave my home. And even now I go out and the alarm’s on. I’m constantly now checking when I hear my doorbell go, whether or not they’ve returned,” she says.
Energy regulator Ofgem has announced new rules that energy companies should follow before forcing the installation of a prepayment meter.
Analysis:
Ofgem’s prepayment rules are too little too late
But charities are warning they still leave many people at risk of having their homes targeted for enforced meter fittings. Some had been calling for a total ban on the practice.
Mary wouldn’t be exempt under the new rules. She has been trying to pay off the debt but there is some way to go.
“I still feel extremely vulnerable,” she says.
