29 March 2023 , 10:54
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More than a million energy customers will benefit from a small fall in their energy bills this weekend as an energy firm has pushed forward plans to reduce prepayment meter charges.
From Saturday, prepayment meter customers with British Gas will pay as much as direct debit customers for gas and keep the same current discount for electricity prepayment meters.
This means the average prepayment customer getting both gas and electricity will be £59 better off per year.
In the Chancellor's Spring Budget, energy companies were told that they were not allowed to charge prepayment customers more from July.
British Gas however has decided to introduce the policy earlier.
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From Saturday, prepayment meter customers with British Gas will pay as much as direct debit customers for gas and keep the same current discount for electricity prepayment meters (PA)Over the next three months, British Gas says its prepayment customers will be well over £10million "better off" with the average saving being £15 per household.
Chris O’Shea, chief executive of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas said: “We know that more help is needed for prepayment customers, and we support the Government’s decision to lower prepayment prices to the same level as direct debit customers.
"We wanted to do more to support this group of customers by introducing this change as soon as we could so British Gas prepayment customers will benefit immediately.
British Gas has around 1.24million customers with prepayment meters.
However, around 158,000 only have electricity prepayment meters and will not benefit from the change.
About 4.5million households in the UK use prepayment meters.
Recent Government data revealed that British Gas, Scottish Power and Ovo Energy made up 70 per cent of all forced installations over the last year.
The data showed in total that more than 94,000 prepayment meters were forcibly installed last year without consent when a customer had not paid their bill.
Last month it emerged that debt agents acting for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to force-fit meters, and that courts had been waving through energy firm applications to forcibly install meters.
Earlier this month, the energy regulator Ofgem announced it was extending the ban on forced prepayment installations which had been due to expire at the end of March.
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Ofgem said the ban would stay "indefinitely" and it will only be lifted if firms began following Ofgem's new code of practice.