Ban on cutting off energy at home for length of lockdown
ENERGY companies have been banned from cutting off customers during the lockdown.
Disconnections are stopped during the worst winter months every year but the moratorium has been extended for as long as the latest Level 5 Covid restrictions last.
The extension was ordered by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, the director of which, John Melvin, said: ‘The CRU will take appropriate actions in line with the Living with Covid-19 plan to protect customers and assess these measures based on the ongoing monitoring of the market.
‘As these moratoriums are only temporary measures to reflect the necessary changes in the national Covid-19 plan, the CRU strongly encourages all customers to continue to pay their bills as usual, or if they face difficulty, to engage with their suppliers.’
The move was welcomed by People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, who raised the issue recently in the Dáil. ‘That’s very good, it’s welcome,’ she said. ‘I was thinking, how could you afford to keep your heating on, but how could you afford not to in this cold?’ The Dublin South-Central TD said many of the poorest customers, such as pensioners and welfare recipients, were on pay-as-you-go tariffs.
Although they are allowed to run up a deficit on their account , she said: ‘ The last time when the lockdown ended and we were going into some sort of normality, they [energy firms] had given those with the pay-as-you-go card €100 in advance to top up their energy bills. But then they proceeded, without any consultation or proper information, even understanding of how people live... to take it back at the rate of 60%.
‘So if you went in and tried to top up your heat for a tenner, you only got €4 worth of gas. It was like an advance.’ She added: ‘There are loads of people very stressed out trying to pay it back. It’s very severe on people.’
Both Prepaypower and Pinergy – the two pay-as-yougo energy suppliers – were contacted for comment. Ms Smith called on the CRU to stop energy firms from clawing back the credit that was advanced to their customers at the start of the pandemic, something she said is ‘hurting the most vulnerable’.
She said: ‘It’s way too much too soon, and it’s too heavy a burden for many of the most vulnerable people who needed to avail of the credit in the first place. This means some people will simply have to go without heating or cooking facilities as the amount taken back in any one transaction is way too much. The very people most exposed to fuel and energy poverty are the ones being hit here.’
She has contacted Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and is appealing to the companies to lessen the amount and timing of the clawback.
Ms Smith said: ‘ I’m asking them to stop such a heavy clawback, especially as we now come into bouts of bad weather, and give people more time to pay this back.’
The CRU said it will continue to monitor the levels of customers’ arrears, disconnections and the energy market in case there is a need for further measures.
A spokesman said: ‘The CRU acknowledges the steps that suppliers are taking to protect their own customers and considers the ongoing introduction of industry-wide moratoriums, inline with the Government’s Plan for Living with Covid- 1 9 Level 5 measures, as an important protection f or customers during the pandemic.’
‘It’s way too much too soon’