Prepayment meters
What are they?
Prepayment meters (PPMs) are widely used in the UK, especially in rented properties. Instead of paying a steady monthly bill by direct debit, PPMs are pay-as-you-go, usually by topping up a card or a key at a local shop to insert into your meter.
Some of us prefer to budget this way, often we have never known any different. However, prepayment meters come with dangers. When your meter runs out, everything clicks off without warning – the home is plunged into darkness, water stops during a shower, your fridge-freezer loses power while you sleep or your landline phone turns off in an emergency. These occurrences are at best a nuisance but, particularly for elderly or disabled people, can be deadly at worst.
Forced PPMs
Everyone should have choice and access to a method of payment that is safe and suitable for them. But if, like millions of people in the UK right now, you can’t afford your energy bills and fall into debt, your supplier may attempt to force you onto a PPM. Suppliers do this by obtaining warrants to break into homes, but nowadays can also switch smart meters to prepayment remotely.
If you are facing this issue, help is available from Citizens Advice.
Campaigning
FPA has campaigned for years against the forced imposition of PPMs. We have disrupted a British Gas Annual General Meeting (AGM), held Warm Up protests in buildings including the British Museum and Scottish Parliament, and delivered a giant PPM to the door of the Department of Energy Security.
In February 2023, following months of campaigning in response to energy suppliers breaching regulations and forcibly installing PPMs en masse, FPA helped force the government to place a suspension on the practice. This remained in place across the energy sector for 11 months, but during 2024 and 2025 Ofgem has been granting permission to individual suppliers to begin forced installations again if they are deemed to have met new, weak regulations.
FPA is continuing to demand the government ban forced PPMs.
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