British Gas is suspending the force-fitting of prepayment meters, the energy provider’s owner Centrica said on Wednesday after a report said its debt-collecting contractor broke into homes of  “vulnerable” customers.
The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem also said on Thursday that it’s launching an “urgent investigation.”
According to The Times of London, an undercover reporter witnessed agents from debt collecting company Arvato Financial Solutions breaking into the home of a single father of three young children with a locksmith to change the meter in sub-zero temperatures, meaning the family would have no heating unless they top up.
Job notes involving British Gas customers in recent weeks also showed that a woman with “severe mental health bipolar” disorder, a woman who has “mobility problems and is partially sighted,” and a mother whose “daughter is disabled and has a hoist and [an] electric wheelchair” had their homes fitted with prepayment meters, the report said….