In line with our primary objective of protecting consumers, we committed to strengthening protections for prepayment meter (PPM) customers and those who are struggling with their bills as part of our Consumer Vulnerability Strategy 2025.
Research shows that PPM customers are more likely to be in vulnerable situations such as having existing physical and mental health issues, or in living in fuel poverty.
PPM customers face particular barriers to accessing better deals such as fewer competitive tariffs, installation, removal and warrant charges and upfront security deposits. We want to remove these barriers to make sure that prepayment customers can access better deals by switching to other PPM tariffs or to other payment methods, where appropriate.
Self-disconnection and self-rationing
Self-disconnection occurs when PPM customers experience an interruption to their electricity or gas supply due to a lack of credit on their meter, or credit is not easily accessible. Closely associated with this is self-rationing for PPM customers. This is when customers may deliberately limit their energy use to save money, or restrict spending on other goods or services.
We are concerned about the impact of self-disconnection and self-rationing on PPM customers and the level of support provided to these customers. In August 2019, we consulted on our initial policy proposals to help protect these consumers given the significant negative impacts experienced by consumers, particularly for those in vulnerable circumstances.
In June 2020, we published our statutory consultation seeking views on our final proposals. We have since published our decision to introduce a package of new protections to improve outcomes for PPM customers who go off supply or ‘self-disconnect’ and those who deliberately limit or ‘self-ration’ their energy use, and for consumers who struggle to pay their energy bills
Through the publications and update feed below you can access our publications and outputs produced in relation to self-disconnection.
Prepayment meter price cap
From 1 April 2017, the amount of money a supplier can charge a domestic prepayment meter (PPM) customer is subject to a price cap. We are responsible for updating the cap every six months. The level of the cap for the most recent and any previous charge restriction periods can be found on our Prepayment meter price cap page.
We consulted on our proposals to protect energy consumers with prepayment meters after the PPM cap expires at the end of December 2020 and have decided to protect customers with PPM’s and default tariffs using the default tariff cap.
Changes to warrant uses and charges
In January 2018, measures took effect to protect consumers from detrimental effects as a result of having a prepayment meter installed under warrant. As well as a £150 cap on charges for installing pre-payment meters under warrant for customers in debt, these measures prohibit suppliers levying any prepayment meter warrant charges in some circumstances (for example for people in severe financial difficulty) and banning installations entirely for people for whom the experience would be severely traumatic, for example due to mental health issues.
Debt Assignment Protocol
The Debt Assignment Protocol (DAP) is the mechanism that suppliers use to transfer debt between one another when an indebted PPM customer switches supplier. We obligated suppliers to increase the amount of prepayment debt consumers could have when switching from £200 to £500.
Through the publications and update feed below you can access our publications and outputs produced in relation to prepayment meters.