British Gas is gearing up to provide thousands of prepayment customers with an extra £250 in energy credit.
The money is intended to help those who are struggling the most with their energy bills to help pay for them following a dramatic rise in costs over the past year. The energy supplier said it will identify those eligible for the extra cash, which means customers will not need to apply.
The move is part of a new £10 million support package by British Gas targeting prepayment customers. Many energy customers have prepayment meters installed in their homes if they fall behind on their energy bills, despite the fact that such meters are more expensive than paying via direct debit, the Mirror reports.
However, British Gas has indicated that it plans to ban forced remote switches to prepayment meters this winter - unless a customer explicitly asks for one. The supplier will also run extra vulnerability checks and install smart prepay meters so customers experiencing issues can have them identified more quickly.
It comes after research from Citizens Advice revealed that 3.2 million people ran out of credit last year because they were unable to top-up their meter. Chris O’Shea, Chief Executive of Centrica, parent company of British Gas said: “We know that some prepayment customers are self-disconnecting and not coming forward for help, so we have reviewed our policies to do more to target support at this group.
“As a responsible business we are doing all we can to support our customers during this crisis – our work with the British Gas Energy Trust provides grants and money advice services.
“As well as helping our customers with much needed cash grants, I’m really proud of how our teams are giving expert advice and support at this busy time to help guide people through this crisis.
“Our call centres are helping around a million energy customers each month with their bills and our engineers are in homes every day advising customers on how to be more energy efficient and make savings.”
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