Energy companies forcibly installing prepayments meters by "breaking into homes" is widespread in Scotland, a charity has claimed. Poppy Ives, from South Seeds in Govanhill, Glasgow, said she worked with many people who have had their meters forcibly changed.
Ms Ives also said she had heard of families going to the public swimming pool to take a shower once a week in order to save money on bills. She added: "People tell me all the time about the things they do to save on electricity and gas: people going to swimming pools once a week to shower there, people using candles to heat their homes because they don't have any gas or batch cooking their meals once a week.
A statement on the Centrica website on Thursday said: "The allegations around our third-party contractor Arvato are unacceptable and we immediately suspended their warrant activity. Having recently reviewed our internal processes to support our prepayment customers, as well as creating a new £10million fund to support those prepayment customers who need help the most, I am extremely disappointed that this has occurred.
Top news stories today He branded the practice as "dreadful" and "unthinkable", adding: "If this is happening once, it is happening one too many times. We need to be really clear on what this means for people. This means that people can't heat their homes and can't light their homes
I ask to get these changed ages ago and they said you need to pay hundreds of pounds for that, so I left it how it was, and my friends asked as well and they told them the same thing, it must have been a con they had going all the time.
These meters where in my house when I moved in and same with my friends, I thought it was normal, but it seems they have been conning me all along.