Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 214542, what research his Department carried out in determining that no suppliers require an upfront payment from customers on a credit meter.

The Department identified if a supplier required upfront non-refundable payments from consumers on credit meters, during the switching process using publically available information provided by each energy supplier.

Recent research by the Department has revealed that in certain circumstances, including the absence of any consumer credit history, a supplier may request a credit meter customer to pay a refundable security deposit before the switching process. The deposit will be returned to the customer either by cash refund or credit balance added to their energy account after energy bills have been paid on a regular basis over 12 month period.