Into homes of vulnerable people. 0fgem. this was the footage that trust energy companies firmly under the spotlight. an undercover reporter from the times showed that collectors working for british gas breaking into the home of a single father with young children, to fit a prepayment metre. energy suppliers can legally force fits these devices. it should be a last resort, if people are in arrears, and vulnerable customers should not be switched. last year more than 1000 warrants per day were granted to energy companies, mainly in order to forcibly install prepayment metres. energy companies identified customers who were in arrears, than their agents applied for a warrant by telephone. they sent in large spreadsheets with between 101,000 cases. the hearings were signed off, issued and sent all the electronic once in a maximum of 15 minutes, according to evidence from pilots. this new advice or magistrates, obtained by the bbc, reflects internal disquiet that the process had been wate
This is bbc news with the latest headlines. energy regulator ofgem tells energy companies to suspend the forced installation of prepayment metres. it s one week since nicola bulley went missing in lancashire her family make an appeal for her safe return. anything that you can remember that just doesn t seem right, then please, reach out to the police. please, just get in touch and get my sister back. china urges calm after the united states said it s tracking a suspected chinese surveillance balloon seen over sensitive sites in recent days. deserted railway stations as train drivers in england stage their second walk out this week. australian tennis star nick kyrgios admits assaulting his ex girlfriend but avoids a criminal conviction we ll have the latest from canberra.
House to collect debts, they can sometimes have powers to enter your house to collect debts, in certain circumstances. 0ften things dealing with public sector creditors. so again there is a sector which we think it is not regulated enough, we have argued for a long time the bailiff sector which is largely private firms needs to be regulated with an independent tree. we hope it will raise standards we have to look also to the organisations in this case the local government and in case of the prepayment metres, the energy companies who are instructing agents to do this work, they need to tighten up on thinking about, how old they are intensifying what the people have extreme financial difficulties or other vulnerabilities that would make that enforcement harmful and that
Look after vulnerable people because there are clear rules and they are obviously not have been followed and therefore any of the regulator and the companies to do the right thing by people who are in the most difficult of circumstances and have been treated on this evidence appallingly. we can speak to peter tutton, the head of policy at the debt charity stepchange. shed a bit of light on the people going about this work, collectors, big lift. b, going about this work, collectors, bi lift. ~ , , ., , big lift. a bailiff is quite a broad term that comes big lift. a bailiff is quite a broad term that comes with big lift. a bailiff is quite a broad term that comes with lots - big lift. a bailiff is quite a broad term that comes with lots of i big lift. a bailiff is quite a broad i term that comes with lots of things. and have different powers and different things that may be called bailiffs how different powers. so in this case we are talking about installation of prepayment metres w
And forcibly fit pre payment metres. the boss of centrica which owns british gas said the tactic was inexcusable . they have suspended the subcontractor. it comes after an undercover reporter from the times newspaper found the metres were being fitted in homes which should have been protected, with some workers expressing how exciting it was to break in and install them. citizens advice found 3.2 million people across great britain went out of credit on their prepayment metres last year. these are some of the most vulnerable people, because they couldn t afford to top up, and now we hear that there are companies, subcontractors going into these homes and forcibly fitting them. these prepayment metres are quite pernicious these prepayment metres are quite pernicious in ways because these are the most pernicious in ways because these are the most vulnerable people who can t really the most vulnerable people who can t really afford their electricity, but are being really afford