Energy customers who do not pay by direct debit are being "ripped off" by the big companies, according to Tory MP Robert Halfon.
Prime minister David Cameron has already launched an investigation into whether consumers paying by cash or cheque were subsidising direct debit customers after it emerged they were paying an average £114 a year more.
And Halfon is leading a Commons campaign to see a cap of £2 a month placed on charges which, he claims, hit the least well off in society such as pensioners. He has tabled a Commons motion which has attracted almost 200 supporters.
His motion states that 45 per cent of people do not pay their energy bills by direct debit and that over one million people in the UK do not have access to a bank account.
Describing the charges as a "stealth tax on the poor", he has called on the watchdog Ofgem to hold an inquiry into the issue and to operate with more transparency.
Speaking before a parliamentary debate on the issue, Halfon said: ""Energy companies have been ripping the consumer off , have been fleecing the consumer, particularly the poor and pensioners, with their stealth tax for some time."
Rest of the article here
www.ibtimes.co.uk/mps-attack-energy-firm...-cash-payers-1435080
Nothing new - we all know this has always been the case - but it is nice to see it highlighted again. As per usual it is the poor and vulnerable who pay the most.
I work with people who choose to use pre-payment meters and in the main they can't be bothered to change, or have been told that there is a charge to change from pre-payment to billing. Whether the latter is true or not, I don't know.
