To say "You can now be forced onto a prepayment meter without being taken to court"

[Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk]

I've just read about this - and I could well be the only person in the world who didn't know it already... so please feel free to flame me!

Previously, if you didn't pay your electricity / gas bill, your supplier needed to get a warrant from the court in order to fit a pre-payment meter... So I'd imagine that was time consuming and expensive for them to do, therefore not that likely to happen. But if you have a smart meter fitted, they can "at the flick of a switch" change you to prepayment without needing a warrant, assuming you have have gone through the arrears process. (And once you are in on a pre-payment plan, a pre-portion of any payments you do make, go to pay off the debt first, and only some of it goes on to electricity for that day (that bit I did know).

This has surprised me, and I wonder if it's general knowledge?

I see on many, many threads - (not just on here), people just saying "don't pay, what can they do, they can't pursue everyone".... Well, apparently they can, at least if you are on a smart meter.

YABU - everyone knows this - and it's why people are hesitant to have smart metres,

YANBU - It's news to me too!

The court order was to allow access to the property, not for changing the method of payment. With a smart meter they no longer need physical access.

Do you know that energy companies are lobbying to tey and give them the power to "manage" energy consumption so they can turn peoples power off for hours at a time, like a rolling blackout? That is far more frightening.

*the government, not to tey. No idea why auto thought that was a good idea.

I did know this. They also have the technological capability to turn off the supply to a smart meter remotely, so that's a frightening thought for the future.

It's hardly surprising though.

The energy companies (the retailers, not the generators) are making a loss or at best, a very small profit (like £10 per customer per year) while their own costs have skyrocketed and it's quite likely that there's a lot of people who have their heads in the sand who won't notice the reality of the price increases or change their behaviour until they get an enormous bill early next year. That they can't pay.

And if enough people do that, it's going to seriously affect their cashflow, so no wonder they want to use the tools at their disposal to make sure that they get paid for the product that their customers have used.

Plus they also know that it's very likely that there will not be enough power this winter for it to be used willy nilly (because a lot is generated by gas, and you know, Ukraine) so changes have to be made to avoid power cuts, because we've been close to the limit for some years now and this year, everything's tipped over the edge.

This is why smart meters were pushed on us.

I knew about this. It’s why I’m keeping my old meter. It’s much easier for them to cut you off remotely too. I don’t actually owe the electric company money but I worry about the future.

I am resisting a smart meter but I expect to have one foisted on me eventually.

I did know about the rolling blackouts - wasn't so much worried about those.... they at least feel like we can plan for them - charge devices etc, but we don't have any vulnerable people in our home so it's easy for me to not be worried. I feel for those that really need energy all the time (medical needs?) - not sure how they will manage.

I didn’t know this.

But as a PP said, it’s obvious (to me) that anything giving the energy companies remote control over your power and being able to limit it is potentially dystopian. I’ve actually blocked EDF’s number on my online as they were calling me so frequently trying to convince me to get a smart meter. No thank you.

I'm glad I'm not the only ne who didn't know it ... someone said to me last year that "the electricity is used to control the people" ... they sounded a bit unhinged at the time. I'm now maybe starting to think they had a point !

For anyone else who comes to this thread not knowing about possible shutdowns via smart meters. When a government "mulls over" something of this magnitude it usually means they want it but don't know how to implement it without riots. This is why I refused a smart meter.
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-8706033/Smart-meters-used-switch-electricity-without-warning-compensation.html

For those who don't want to read...its about cutting off your central heating...in winter.

I had no idea about this, thanks for sharing.

I am still on old meter, but no wonder DH was instinctively cautious about moving onto smart meter. even if we have no issues paying the bills yet, its still a sobering thought

I was a bit puzzled, as the government doesn't need smart meters in order to implement temporary blackouts. They can just turn the power off, like a deliberate power failure. Having now read the article, it's about something else, the ability to selectively turn off certain high-usage devices, like car charging or central heating, at crisis moments.

So there are three scenarios for turning off power:
1.) You don't pay for what you use, a smart meter makes it easier for them to switch you to prepayment. (You aren't actually cut off in this scenario, unless you cut yourself off by not paying once prepayment is in place.)
2.) They switch all power off for everyone (in your area.) This is the emergency measure that will happen if there's not enough power, whether you have a smart meter or not will make no difference.
3.) They temporarily restrict the amount of power you can use, this will require new smart meters, as existing ones don't have this technology. I think. So current smart meters not a disadvantage.

So the only people for whom smart meters are a disadvantage are those who want to not pay their bills and have it be expensive for the company to put them onto prepayment.

Further reading is that they can only switch off your heating remotely if (a) you have smart meter of a new type that is yet to be approved, and (b) you have intentionally signed up for a tariff that allows them to do this. (Which will presumably be cheaper as a result.)

The story about your heating being turned off is a complete non-issue.

It’s also a payment meter and is not prepayment. You san still accrue debt as it used to be on average consumption (I assume it’s more accurate with a smart meter). You should still submit readings especially if you leave a property. If you don’t submit a reading your energy company are within their rights to issue an estimated bill (that can be for any value,I worked in the field and £800 wasn’t rare). They use your readings to reconcile costs v payments and either add a debt to your account or issue a credit.the amount of customers ‘but I was on pre-payment, I don’t have a bill!’ No it’s a payment meter and you didn’t submit a final reading so the company can’t tell whether you owe them or not.