What’s it like waking up to strangers fitting a pre-payment meter in your home? – BBC Newsnight

A report by The Times Newspaper that British Gas has been sending debt collectors, incentivised by bonuses, into thousands of homes under warrant to sometimes forcibly install prepayment meters has brought a complete turnaround by the company.

British Gas immediately suspended the practice which is intended as a last resort for those unable to pay their bills and which hits the most vulnerable with higher bills. Ofgem told energy companies to stop the practice.

Newsnight Correspondent Anna Collinson spoke to a woman with mobility issues who woke up to men in her house who had forced entry to fit a pre-payment meter.

The number of requests for a warrant for forced entry coming before magistrates has rocketed in the past three years and stood at 367,000 last year.

Newsnight examines the role of the courts and concerns that guidance introduced in 2019 means magistrates are now very rarely scrutinising warrant requests before granting them.

The programme did ask to speak to the government but they declined. Representatives of the major energy companies and the energy regulator Ofgem said nobody was available to speak.

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