British Gas routinely sends debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit pay-as-you-go meters, even when they are known to have extreme vulnerabilities, a Times investigation can reveal.
An undercover reporter worked for Arvato, a company used by British Gas to pursue debts, amid rocketing energy prices and more customers falling behind with their bills.
The reporter accompanied debt agents in below-freezing conditions as they worked with a locksmith to break into the home of a single father of three young children and switch it to a prepayment meter. If families with these gas meters cannot afford to top up, their heating is cut off.
On another occasion agents were sent by British Gas with a court warrant to force-fit a meter at the home of a young mother with a four-week-old baby. Her bills have risen sevenfold during the cost of living crisis.
According to job notes seen by The Times, other British Gas customers who have had prepayment meters fitted by force in recent weeks include a woman in her fifties described as “severe mental health bipolar”, a woman who “suffers with mobility problems and is partially sighted” and a mother whose “daughter is disabled and has a hoist and [an] electric wheelchair”.
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After being approached for comment, British Gas suspended the practice of force-fitting prepayment meters. It began an investigation into the “deeply concerning” findings, adding: “This is not who we are — it’s not how we do business.”
Last month Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said it expects to report a more than sevenfold increase in net profits for last year after benefitting from volatile energy prices.
Grant Shapps, the business and energy secretary, has ordered an urgent meeting in the coming days with British Gas and said ministers would be “demanding answers to ensure this systemic failure is addressed”.
He said: “I am horrified by the findings of this investigation and would like to thank The Times for shining a light on these abhorrent practices.”
Last month Shapps wrote to energy companies warning them to stop force-fitting prepayment meters, but the undercover reporter found that British Gas has continued.
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Energy companies can apply to magistrates’ courts for warrants to force entry into customers’ homes and fit a prepayment meter if they have fallen behind on bills.
• Ofgem orders energy firms to stop force-fitting prepayment meters
The customers can then only use their supply if they top up, by visiting a shop with a card, or through a smartphone app. British Gas typically then takes £6.50 per week from the top ups as repayments — and hundreds of pounds extra is added to the customer’s bill to cover the debt collectors’ costs.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, says that forcing customers onto prepayment meters under warrant should only ever be a last resort, and should never occur when customers are “in very vulnerable situations”.
The regulator says that vulnerability can include being of state pension age, having a disability, a mental health condition, being pregnant, or having children under five years old.
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Last night Ofgem also began an urgent investigation into debt collection at British Gas and potential breaches of licence conditions. A spokesman said: “These are extremely serious allegations from The Times. We won’t hesitate to take firm enforcement action.”
Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the practices were “completely unacceptable”, adding: “There is nothing I can say that can express the horror I had when I heard this.”
He said all British Gas’s work with its debt collection contractor had been paused while an investigation was carried out.
“The contractor that we’ve employed, Arvato, has let us down but I am accountable for this,” he said. “This happened when people were acting on behalf of British Gas. There’s nothing that can be said to excuse that.”
It can now also be revealed that:
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•There has been a surge in cases, from 275,000 in 2019 to 345,000 in the 11 months to December, in courts that sign off warrants allowing energy companies to force entry.
•Debt collectors working for Arvato, on behalf of British Gas, are incentivised with bonuses when they force-fit prepayment meters, which can encourage them to ignore vulnerabilities.
•One agent claimed single mothers were their most common customers, adding: “If every single mum that starts getting a bit teary you’re going to walk away from, you won’t be earning any bonus.”
•British Gas agents have continued to remotely switch customers on smart meters to pay-as-you-go settings, despite its parent company saying this would be stopped during the winter.
•A manager overseeing debt collectors for British Gas told of manipulating customers by saying the police would kick in their doors and search their homes if they did not comply.
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•An agent enforcing warrants for British Gas said of his colleagues: “If they go in and they see an elderly lady, they’ll be like, ‘oh an easy job for me.’ ”
There have been growing calls from charities and campaigners for energy companies to end the forced installation of prepayment meters.
Households are now typically spending about £1,200 more per year for gas and electricity, compared with prices before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Centrica said it had policies in place to ensure warrants were only used as a last resort after several attempts to resolve issues with customers, and that it recently announced a £10 million fund for prepayment customers. It has begun an investigation, including into the practice of mode changes [remotely switching customers’ meters] continuing last month.
A spokeswoman said: “Protecting vulnerable customers is a priority. The information The Times has shared with us is deeply concerning and we’re taking these allegations seriously.”
Arvato Financial Solutions said it “acts compliantly at all times in accordance with the regulatory requirements” and the findings did not represent the company’s views or its official guidance on how to interact with customers.
A spokesman said: “If there has been any verbal or any other type of misconduct by individual employees, we deeply regret it.”
The Labour MP Darren Jones, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, called for Ofgem to use enforcement action in light of the findings.
He said: “It is incredibly disturbing to hear those worst off are being treated so poorly. Forcibly installing expensive prepayment meters on the vulnerable and sick is a perverse interpretation of the government’s request to end the practice.”
It is a bitterly cold January morning and I am in a team of five men sent by British Gas to break into a house where three children live with their father.
Alfonso, the debt collector leading the team, bangs on the door. He is wearing a parka lined with faux fur, zipped up to his neck, and leans down to shout through the letterbox.
“Hello, it’s British Gas, your gas supplier. We’re here with a court warrant. Can you please open the door? Otherwise we have a locksmith who will open it for you.”
When there is no answer, the locksmith gets to work. “This is the exciting bit. I love this bit,” Alfonso says.
Once inside, we walk through the living room, stepping over toys for young children: Peppa Pig figurines, a pink bicycle and a mini guitar. It has been minus 3C today and there are clothes drying on radiators and a child’s duvet and pillow on the sofa.
In the kitchen there is a child’s asthma inhaler, eczema cream and a bottle of Calpol. Upstairs, on the door of a young girl’s room, there is a hand-written sign: “No Boys Lowd Sept Daddy”.
The gas engineer gets to work, switching the family to a pay-as-you-go smart meter, which will cut off their heating if it is not topped up. He explains that a technical issue means the family may well not be sent a top-up card for their new meter. “He won’t be sent a card so he’s going to go off supply,” he says. “It’ll be £10 emergency and then that’s it, he’ll go off supply.”
When we entered the home, the radiators were warm. When we leave, they are cold.
Breaking into homes
For the past month I have worked undercover as a debt collector, breaking into homes like this one for British Gas, to reclaim customer debts. While this sort of aggressive debt collection is always controversial, it has become a particular focus of campaigning by charities and campaigners during the cost of living crisis.
Energy companies can force-fit prepayment meters by applying to courts for warrants to enter their customers’ homes. They are meant to screen for vulnerabilities, but courts are said to sign off hundreds of the cases in minutes, with no time for proper scrutiny.
With more and more families struggling to meet their bills due to rises in energy prices, applications for these energy warrants to break into homes have spiralled. Government figures show that in 2019 there were 275,000 of these applications on behalf of energy companies. In the 11 months to December 2022, there were 345,000.
Ministers are becoming increasingly worried about how this is affecting the most vulnerable families, particularly those with young children. According to Citizens Advice, 3.2 million people — the equivalent of one person every ten seconds — were left with cold and dark homes last year after running out of prepay credit.
British Gas and other energy firms use Arvato, a third party company, to pursue debts on their behalf. For three weeks in January, when temperatures were often below freezing, I worked as one of their field agents.
During my interview for the role, the Arvato debt collection manager was dismissive about customers claiming to be too vulnerable to have top up meters. “People say all sorts of shit,” he told me. “You’ll hear every excuse you’ve ever heard in life about why they haven’t paid this bill.”
“When we entered the home the radiators were warm. When we leave they are cold”
I asked about customers who were over 65, or those with young children at home. “The five year old has got nothing to do with it,” he said, “It wouldn’t stop you.”
The manager also offered tips about how to get into people’s homes without a fight, including threatening that the police would smash in their doors. “I’m not going to break into your house if your wife and kids are there. But what I’m going to try to do is talk your wife into letting me into the house,” he explained.
“You’ve got to say well if I call the police with my warrant they can kick your door in if you refuse access and once they’re in they can search your whole property if they want to.”
Laughable loophole
Before starting as a debt collector, I had four days of video training. Describing the warrant process, the Arvato trainer said: “Honestly, it’s a little bit cheeky. Basically the government says you can’t disconnect residential customers so what we do is we install a prepayment meter and then if they don’t top up they self-disconnect. So we don’t actually disconnect them. It’s a bit of a laughable loophole.”
Asked by one of the new recruits whether we would stop force-fitting a meter on the day in exceptional circumstances, the trainer said: “That person could tell you that their entire family of 50 were in a horrific aeroplane crash and were the sole survivor and we’d still be saying that’s a shame but we are changing your meter.”
One of my first days on the road involved the break-in for British Gas at the home of the single father with three children. While the family was out, presumably at work and at school, their cocker spaniel puppy was inside, terrified and hiding in her bed close to the back door. The dog was put in a noose and taken to another room.
Alfonso did not seem fazed by signs that children were living in this home. Speaking into his phone, he said: “For the benefit of the call recording, no one inside the property, dog has been contained by a dog handler, no risks, no vulnerabilities on site.”
While the engineer did his work, other members of the team sat on the family’s sofa, and messed around with the children’s toys. After almost two hours, the job was done and the puppy was returned to her bed. Before leaving, Alfonso disappeared for a while and the team waited for him outside. He left a note from the energy supplier by the front door and the locksmith locked up again.
I asked Alfonso what he had been doing inside, and he replied: “Toilet.”
During my training, Alfonso, a former police officer who has collected debts for energy companies for the past two years, offered me tips on judging a customer’s vulnerability.
“If they’re just saying oh I’m a single mum and I’ve got three kids and rah rah rah that’s not a vulnerability,” he said. “I’m a bit old school and a bit hard-nosed.”
Walking away
During my time undercover, I was repeatedly sent to homes where energy companies had successfully been granted warrants to force-fit meters despite obvious customer vulnerabilities. These included the homes of a 77-year-old man and a young mother with a four-week-old baby.
The woman, who also had three other young children, aged seven, two and one, was crying and rocking her newborn baby after we entered her home. One of the debt collectors noticed that she had left her front door key outside, still in the door, and told her so she could retrieve it.
“With four kids I’m not with it,” she said. “It’s embarrassing. I do try to keep on top of, you know, all of my stuff,” she added, referring to the £649 debt she had with British Gas. “If it was just me in here I’d be here with a quilt.”
She had previously paid her bills in full but they spiralled during the energy crisis from £54 to £364 per month. At one point, while in hospital during her pregnancy, she went online to ask British Gas for a top-up meter to help manage the costs, but then did not complete the request. She said she did not realise that the meters cut off the heating if the top-ups ran out, assuming there would always be emergency credit.
The notes we had on her account suggested she had previously been visited while she was heavily pregnant, but the warrant was still pursued.
The debt agent I was shadowing that day decided to walk away. The meter was in a difficult spot to reach and he did not feel comfortable with the job. Later, he explained his frustration with how British Gas pursued warrants for vulnerable customers and how other agents may well have acted differently.
“They [British Gas] just won’t listen . . . It’s abysmal the way they are doing it”
When we were outside, he told me: “I can’t say to her I’ll sort this, it won’t go down the debt path, we’ll put you in the vulnerable class, because they [British Gas] just won’t listen . . . It’s abysmal the way they are doing it.”
He claimed other agents had broken in through people’s windows and stolen from customers. “You have other warrant officers that will just do everything, do absolutely everything,” he said. “If they go in and, it’s a bad thing to say, but they go in and they see like an elderly lady, they’ll be like, oh an easy job for me.”
Crackdown on rogue suppliers
While I was working undercover, ministers announced a supposed “crackdown on rogue energy suppliers”. A government press release on January 22 stated: “Energy suppliers told they must stop the practice of forced fitting prepayment meters.” It outlined how Shapps, the business secretary, had written to suppliers, “calling on them to stop the harmful and anxiety inducing practice of forcibly moving consumers over to prepayment meters without taking every step to support consumers in difficulty”.
Despite this, British Gas kept sending us to enforce the warrants and force-fit meters.
The day after the announcement an agent wrote on a Whatsapp group for my team of debt collectors that he had been sent on warrants for British Gas, adding: “Got a lady whose son has heart problems, inc having a hole in his heart. He relies on hot water. Would u change meter to smart ppm [prepayment meter].”
Four days after the government letter was sent to energy companies, I was in one of the teams sent to force-fit the top-up meters for British Gas at residential homes.
One of the jobs was for an elderly customer with serious chronic illness and arthritis. We arrived and the house was boarded up. We broke in and there was clearly no one living there anymore. We speculated about whether the customer had died.
At another flat, we force-fitted a top-up meter while a woman shouted at us in a foreign language. Her boyfriend arrived and said they had only recently moved into the flat a month previously.
Prepayment meters
A document sent by email to agents showed many more British Gas warrant jobs listed throughout the country for the same week.
Other documents we received included notes from completed warrant jobs in January. Prepayment meters had been fitted even though agents had noted extreme customer vulnerabilities, including a woman in her fifties with “severe mental health bipolar” and a woman registered as disabled “with arthritis and mobility problems and is also partially sighted”.
Centrica announced on January 18 that it was stopping a practice called “remote switches”, or “mode changes”. This involves remotely switching customers with smart meters to pay-as-you-go settings when they are struggling to pay their bills.
A press release from the company pledged “a commitment to not remotely switch customers to prepayment meters this winter unless the customer requests it”.
The following day I watched one of the debt agents still doing this, by calling a British Gas call centre. The British Gas call operator said: “That’s all done. Mode change has been requested. Any time today the meter will be changed to a pay-as-you-go.”
We made the request while sitting in a car outside the customer’s home. The agent told me: “So even though we knew they were in, if you can mode change it, don’t even bother knocking. Health and safety, there’s no point putting yourself at risk . . . Then literally just write the letter out, put it through the letter box and off you go.”
Agents’ bonuses
During my time working for Arvato, I learnt that the agents’ bonuses incentivised them to force-fit meters. When we successfully force-fitted a meter, the agent earned two bonus points, worth almost £4 per job. When the agent I shadowed walked away from the young mother’s home, he only received one bonus point, worth less than £2.
The culture was target driven. Agents were scored on their results and sent league tables showing how they were performing compared with others across the country.
During one lunch break with the other debt agents, Alfonso described his experience of the culture in this industry.
“You’ll have to literally like murder someone in this job to get in trouble”
“As long as you don’t do anything silly you won’t get in trouble,” he said. “You’ll have to literally like murder someone in this job to get in trouble. You won’t get in trouble.”
A spokesman for Ofgem said: “These are extremely serious allegations from The Times. We are launching an urgent investigation into British Gas.
“The energy crisis is no excuse for unacceptable behaviour towards any customer, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances.”
Centrica said it did everything it could to prevent cases going to warrant, including repeatedly trying to contact customers in debt to reach a solution such as a payment plan. It said it expected all agents to identify vulnerabilities and that it did not force-fit meters when this was not safe or practicable for customers.
A spokeswoman said the firm monitored accounts for signs of self-disconnection and that it had provided £2.8 million of support payments to 60,000 of these customers in the past six months, adding: “We’ve suspended all warrant activity carried out by Arvato while we complete a thorough, and prompt, investigation.”
After The Times raised the case of the mother with a newborn baby, British Gas emailed her and said it might be able to offer her support such as a grant.
Arvato said it always acted in accordance with its regulatory requirements and any inappropriate comments from its staff did not reflect the company’s views or policies.
A spokesman said: “People and their wellbeing are the key focus of our company and all our business activities.”
Do you have a tip for The Times’s investigations team? Email investigations@thetimes.co.uk
