Gillian Cooper, Head of Energy Policy at Citizens Advice, responded to Ofgem’s outline of its next steps on forced Prepayment Meter (PPM) installations 

“We’ve seen far too many cases of people, who are struggling to pay their bills, being forced onto a prepayment meter despite clear evidence this isn’t safe for them.

“We’re particularly worried about disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. Our research shows nearly one in five households including someone in these groups, who ran out of credit last year, went on to spend at least two days without an energy supply.

“Ofgem is right to repeat our call for suppliers to check if customers need to be moved off a prepayment meter. If suppliers don’t heed this call, the regulator must be ready to step in. If progress isn’t made, the government must take action."

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Notes to editors:

1. Citizens Advice is made up of the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities across England and Wales; the Citizens Advice consumer service; and the Witness Service.
2. Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free.
3. Citizens Advice helped 2.55 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2021-22. And we had 40.6 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
4. Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 18,500 trained volunteers, working at over 2,500 service outlets across England and Wales.
5. Citizens Advice is the largest provider of free, multi-channel debt advice. Providing that help gives Citizens Advice unique insight into the types of debts people struggle with.
6. Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers.
7. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.