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Energy suppliers in UK banned from force-fitting prepay meter

Energy suppliers have been officially banned from force-fitting prepayment meters for elderly people and those with infant children after a scandal over companies’ treatment of vulnerable customers.

The industry regulator, Ofgem, said on Wednesday that companies would be forbidden from forcibly installing prepayment meters for people over 75 years old with no support in their houses and homes with children under the age of two.

The move is an expanded and mandatory version of a code of practice for the forced installation of prepayment meters that suppliers signed up to voluntarily earlier this year.

The Guardian revealed in April that energy suppliers had agreed to a ban on installing prepayment meters in the homes of customers over 85 without consent as part of a new code of conduct and would also make representatives wear body cameras.

Ofgem said on Wednesday that dropping the upper age limit to 75-year-olds with no other support in their home and adding homes with very young children would ensure more people are protected this winter.

The regulator belatedly stepped in to halt the installation of prepayment meters by force in February after repeated warnings from campaign groups and MPs, and only after the Times reported that debt agents working for British Gas ignored signs of vulnerability to fit the meters.

Suppliers agreed to the guidance on putting in the devices when households have run up energy debt after an outcry over agents using court-approved entry warrants to break in to install them. Magistrates were told to stop issuing the warrants in England and Wales.

Currently, no suppliers are carrying out involuntary installations, and they face severe penalties if they do so, unless they meet strict criteria set by Ofgem.

Under the new rules, which come into effect on 8 November, suppliers must ensure they are acting in a “fair and responsible way”, with involuntary installations used only as a last resort.

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