Pre-payment meters

About this time last year I posted in another place: 

"Users of pre-payment meters (usually poorer people who are forced on to them by utility companies) pay more for their gas and electricity than the rest of us. The excuse from the utilities is that the system costs more to run. ISTM that the benefits of having the cash in advance and never having to send out reminders would more than make up for that."

It was put to me that providers only did this as a last resort in the case of their more troublesome customers. However, data gathered by investigative reporter Dean Kirby and published in the i newspaper show that obtaining warrants to impose these meters on users has become virtually routine. 

Out of 533,760 utility warrant applications - which all debt firms acting on behalf on behalf of suppliers use to force entry into homes and businesses - only 72 were refused by magistrates.

i can now also reveal that the court costs for the energy firms [...] are set out at £22 per warrant.

Government has responded to pressure from opposition parties and others by asking utilities to do more to protect vulnerable energy users. It is not clear that this softly-softly approach will work and government must be prepared to tighten the law in this area.