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Tens of thousands of the UK's poorest householders are disconnecting their own power supplies, because they cannot afford to top up their meters. Energy regulator Ofgem said it was so concerned that it wanted further evidence on the scale of the problem. In the past year, 70,000 people on pre-payment meters "self-disconnected" from their electricity supply for a period of at least three hours, Ofgem said. About 80,000 people stopped paying for their gas. While most of those may simply have forgotten to top up their credit - or may have failed to realise they were low - Ofgem said about one in 10 of those on pre-payment meters cut themselves off.
Earlier this year, Citizens Advice estimated that as many as 140,000 householders were going without gas or electricity, because they could not afford to top up their meters. Of those, 56% were left with cold homes, while 35% had insufficient light. Fuel poverty
Some 4.5 million households in the UK have pre-payment meters, often because of a poor credit history.But while suppliers used to cut people off when they could not pay their bills, now householders are - in effect - doing it for themselves. Last year, just 17 homes were cut off by their supplier, compared with more than 8,000 a decade ago. After criticism that those with pre-payment meters faced higher energy charges than everyone else, the regulator imposed a cap on their bills in April 2017. The most they currently have to pay is £1,136 a year. The Ofgem figures were released as part of its annual state of the energy market report, which also found that:
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The prepaid meters are supplied with tamper proof technology to enable instant online credit to be applied. That is how they know people remove their cards etc.
Some people continue to turn off their electricity and gas supplies at the conventional meter, so balancing heating and eating. Twas always thus, but the suppliers cannot track this, yet.
The current estimated bills can be ignored for a time. They are ignored until they need to be paid, as we underestimate usage. The desperate still sit on the dark, go to bed early and cook lightly, if at all, to avoid high bills.
Smart meters tracking every watt and unit are expected to advise people to use less. They will not save energy per se, as someone assumes. They are only saving money for the energy companies who no longer need meter readers, and allow them to change tariffs on the fly and prepare firm profit estimates for the shareholders.
Unfortunately the smart meters are already scaring people to turn off everything. As the roll out progresses, the savings expected in energy consumption and carbon emissions will not materialise. Most already economise, and those that don't need to won't.