While energy firms are obliged to protect people from formal disconnection over the winter, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC) has found evidence that customers in debt who are forced onto a PPM by their supplier will often “self-disconnect” and stop using energy.

Reports have established that energy suppliers are now using PPMs more often as a method of revenue protection.

Court warrants are increasingly being used to get magistrates courts to “rubber stamp” warrants to install meters, EFPC said. Freedom of information requests revealed 187,000 such applications were made in the first six months of 2022.

Energy firms were also found to be switching smart meters from credit to prepayment mode, thereby effectively forcibly installing PPMs remotely and failing to follow due process by not assessing households for vulnerabilities.

Ofgem has already recognised that this is a breach of licence conditions and wrote to energy firms urging them to stop this...