Energy bills to be slashed for over a million households, check if you're affected

British Gas customers on prepayment meters will soon be paying less thanks to new changes being brought in from April 1. The new pricing plan is being rolled out for everyone across the country in July but British Gas has decided to implement the changes early with its prepayment customers expecting to save on average £59 a year for an average dual fuel bill.

Prepayment or pay as you go customers had previously been paying more than users who pay for their energy by direct debit but this has now been scrapped after the new proposals were brought in.

Prepayment meters

British Gas has around 1.24 million customers with prepayment meters though about 158,000 of these only have electricity prepayment meters and will not benefit from the change.

It is thought that many of the households who struggle most financially have the meters and the unfair price difference has been dubbed a ‘poverty premium’, as per The Sun.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt promised in his spring budget to abolish the difference for all 4 million prepayment meters and so the decision by British Gas reflects this. However, they have also made the benevolent gesture of rolling out the changes early, which means that customers will make a total saving of over £10 million over the next three months.

The saving works out at £59 per year for an average dual fuel user who is getting both their gas and electricity from British Gas.

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British Gas Energy Support Fund

Chris O'Shea, chief executive of Centrica who own British Gas said, as per The Express:

We know that more help is needed for prepayment customers, and we support the Government’s decision to lower prepayment prices to the same level as direct debit customers.

We wanted to do more to support this group of customers by introducing this change as soon as we could so British Gas prepayment customers will benefit immediately.

In addition to scrapping the prepayment premium, British Gas also has a £10 million customer support fund set aside especially for prepayment customers struggling to pay their bills.

This has made available non-repayable credit up to £250 on prepayment meters this winter with £5 million already being paid out to customers.

Also on offer are grants of up £1,500 with the British Gas Energy Support Fund, which has helped more than 10,000 British Gas customers write off energy debts. The Trust is also funding extra money advice services across England, Scotland and Wales.

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Sources used:

- The Sun 'Huge energy provider to slash bills for more than a million households in DAYS – check how much you’ll save'

- The Express 'British Gas to slash prepayment prices from April 1 in £59 saving for Britons'

- British Gas 'British Gas Energy Support Fund'