Former PM points the finger over loan sharks
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused energy regulator Ofgem and the Government of creating a "booming business" for loan sharks with the prepayment meter scandal.
Mr Brown accused the regulator's chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, of "dismally" failing to protect vulnerable customers after it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of impoverished people were forced to switch to costly prepayment meters, pushing some of them into the hands of illegal moneylenders.
It emerged that British Gas routinely sent debt collectors to break into customers' homes and force-fit pay-asyou-go meters, even when they were known to have extreme vulnerabilities.
The firm has since stopped the practice.
Mr Brown said the Ofgem boss needed to "consider his position" after "failing on his responsibilities to energy customers".
He said: "Mr Brearley's official responsibility is to protect energy customers by ensuring they are treated fairly and stamp out sharp and bad practice.
“They have failed dismally to properly monitor and expose utility companies and their debt agents who, in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis for 50 years, have been breaking into the homes of impoverished customers."
He added: "A record numberoffamiliesarenowsodeep in debt that they are turning to the door-step lender, and the pay-day lender standing outside the cut-price stores, the pub and the betting shop.
"And even more worryingly, as illegal money lending moves online, the desperate are even more at risk as long as these social media platforms remain exempt from proper scrutiny.”