Citizens Advice has said that extending the prepayment meter cap to those eligible for the Warm Home Discount is “the best way to protect the worst off.”
The national charity has been calling for the price protection for the most vulnerable since 2014 and has welcomed the announcement from the regulator Ofgem that will consult on introducing a safeguard tariff for vulnerable consumers.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“Capping energy bills for the poorest pensioners and families on standard variable tariffs will help those who have been let down the most by a broken market.
“People who stay with the same supplier are being penalised for their loyalty - paying hundreds of pounds more a year for the same gas and electricity. It is too often the most vulnerable and those with the lowest incomes who pay the highest prices for their energy.
“We have been calling for the prepayment meter cap to be extended to all those eligible for the Warm Home Discount for years - and the regulator’s announcement yesterday paves the way for protecting as many as 2.6 million more who can least afford rising energy bills.
“Extending the prepayment cap is the best way to protect the worst off - and suppliers must also do more to cut costs for all loyal customers. We’d like suppliers to have annual targets for getting their customers off standard variable tariffs, and a deadline after which any who haven’t switched for 3 years would also have their bills capped.”
Citizens Advice estimates that extending the prepayment meter price cap to people eligible for Warm Home Discount would protect an extra 2.6 million households from the highest gas and electricity prices.
Those eligible for Warm Home Discount include low income households with an elderly person, a young child or someone with a long term health condition.
Previous Citizens Advice research found that around 800,000 of the poorest pensioners and 1.5m low income families with children in Great Britain are on their energy supplier’s standard variable tariff, costing them an average of £140 a year more.
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