Heat or eat?: Prepaid electricity meters are forcing Brits into the cold

British energy companies can convert their customers' meters to a prepaid system.

Heat or eat?: Prepaid electricity meters are forcing Brits into the cold

British energy companies can convert their customers' meters to a prepaid system. People with low incomes are often affected. You will then also end up in the most expensive tariffs. Many are currently being forced to do without heating and electricity altogether.

There is snow on the roof, and the terraced house in the London suburb of Arnos Grove is enveloped in bitter cold. Inside, Samantha Pierre-Joseph warms herself with a whirring fan heater. The device in the living room is the only heater in the house. The 40-year-old psychotherapist cannot afford more heat since her energy supply was switched to a prepaid system.

The British, like the rest of Europe, are suffering from drastically increased electricity and heating costs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But some on the island are hit particularly hard: If you have a prepaid meter, you pay even higher tariffs, and the costs are not spread evenly over the year. Until recently, Pierre-Joseph paid his electricity and gas bills by direct debit. But then she quarreled with the utility company about a bill that she felt was unjustified. The company then changed the payment method.

"About six weeks ago I came home from shopping, went to my kitchen, put my bags down and looked at the smart meter," says Pierre-Joseph. "And it said 'Charge Now', which was really weird." Pierre-Joseph, who lives with her adult daughter, can now only use electricity and gas when topping up her credit. In addition, it has automatically slipped into a higher tariff. That's why the central heating is now off - just like the lights on the Christmas tree.

More than four million UK homes are connected via prepaid meters. These are no longer the coin meters of yore, but mostly meters that can be topped up online and switched to prepaid remotely by operators. Older devices are still installed in some apartments, for which credit is sold at the post office or in small shops. "Households with prepaid meters have been hit hardest by the energy crisis because they have had to pay rising energy costs upfront from day one," said Peter Smith of the charity National Energy Action. "It's a more expensive payment method compared to direct debit."

During the crisis, the British government is paying most households subsidies for energy costs. However, anyone who has an older prepaid meter does not receive the money automatically, but must first apply for it - which around 40 percent of those entitled have not yet done. Consumer groups are predicting that hundreds of thousands more British households could be forced to pay their energy bills in advance this winter due to mounting utility debt.

In the UK, defaulting customers rarely have their electricity or heating cut off. But the prepaid method sometimes amounts to the same thing. Because then the poor are faced with the choice of whether they prefer to heat or eat and usually opt for the latter. "Some households simply don't have the resources to charge their energy meters and stop using energy in their homes," says Smith, warning of the health consequences. The British energy regulator Ofgem is also concerned and criticizes the "dealing with vulnerable consumers". When switching to prepaid payment, the living conditions of the people would not be sufficiently taken into account. "In extreme cases, this has reportedly resulted in vulnerable customers being without power for days or even weeks," the agency said.

In the London suburb of Arnos Grove, Pierre-Joseph keeps an eye on the energy meter. "Basically all my appliances are off most of the time - except for the fridge and the water heater," she says. To save electricity, Pierre-Joseph only cooks every two days. Nevertheless, she has to top up her meter with at least 60 pounds, the equivalent of 69 euros, every week.