British Gas has been routinely sending debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and fit pay-as-you-go meters even when they are known to have extreme vulnerabilities, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

An undercover reporter worked last month for Arvato, a service used by British Gas to pursue debts, amid rocketing energy prices and a surge in customers falling behind with their bills.

The reporter accompanied debt agents in below-freezing conditions as they worked with a locksmith to break into the home of a single father of three young children and switch them to a prepayment meter. If families with these gas meters cannot afford to top up, they are cut off from their heating.

Agents were also sent by British Gas with a court warrant to fit a pay-as-yougo meter at the home of a young mother with a four-week-old baby whose bills had risen sevenfold.

According to job notes seen by The Times, other British Gas customers who have had prepayment meters fitted by force in recent weeks include a woman in her 50s with “severe mental health bipolar”, a woman who “suffers with mobility problems and is partially sighted” and a mother whose “daughter is disabled and has a hoist and [an] electric wheelchair”.

After being approached for comment, British Gas suspended last night the practice of force-fitting prepayment meters. The company began an investigation into the “deeply concerning” findings, adding: “This is not who we are — it’s not how we do business.”

British Gas’s owner, Centrica, said last month it expected to report a more than sevenfold increase in net profits for the year after benefitting from volatile energy prices.

Grant Shapps, the business and energy secretary, ordered an urgent meeting with British Gas, adding: “I am horrified by the findings of this investigation and would like to thank The Times for shining a light on these abhorrent practices.” Last month Shapps wrote to energy suppliers warning them to stop force-fitting prepayment meters, but the undercover reporter found that British Gas continued the practice.

The companies can apply to magistrates’ courts for warrants to force entry into customers’ homes and fit a prepayment meter if they have fallen behind on bills. The customers can then only use their supply if they top up, by visiting a shop with a card, or through a smartphone app. British Gas typically then takes £6.50 per week from the topups as debt repayments. Hundreds of pounds are also added to the customer’s debt to cover the collectors’ costs.

Rules from Ofgem, the energy regulator, state that forcing customers on to prepayment meters under warrant should only ever be a last resort, and never occur when customers are “in very vulnerable situations”.

The regulator says that vulnerability can include being of state pension age, having a disability or mental health condition, being pregnant or having children under five years old.

Last night Ofgem also began an urgent investigation into British Gas and potential breaches of licence conditions, adding: “We won’t hesitate to take firm enforcement action.”

The Times can also reveal: 

● The number of warrants signed off by courts allowing energy suppliers to force entry rose from 275,000 in 2019 to 345,000 in the 11 months to December.

● Debt collectors working for Arvato Financial Solutions on behalf of British Gas are incentivised with bonuses when they force-fit prepayment meters, which can encourage them to ignore vulnerabilities.

● One agent claimed that the most commonly encountered customers were single mothers, adding that if you “walk away” from “every single mum that starts getting a bit teary . . . you won’t be earning any bonus”.

● British Gas continued to remotely switch customers on smart meters to pay-as-you-go settings, despite its parent company saying this would be stopped during the winter.

● A manager overseeing debt collectors told of manipulating customers by saying the police would kick in their doors and search their homes if they did not comply.

● An agent enforcing warrants for British Gas said of his colleagues: “If they go in and they see an elderly lady, they’ll be like, ‘Oh an easy job for me’. ”

British Gas uses Arvato Financial Solutions, a third-party company, to pursue its customers’ debts. Last year about a third of energy warrants signed off by courts were for Arvato, with many ofthese on behalf of British Gas. Graham Stuart, the energy minister, said he would be speaking to British Gas today “to demand action to end this practice”.

The Labour MP Darren Jones, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, said: “It is incredibly disturbing to hear those worst off are being treated so poorly. Forcibly installing expensive prepayment meters on the vulnerable and sick is a perverse interpretation of the government’s request to end the practice.”

Centrica said it had policies in place to ensure warrants were used only as a last resort after multiple attempts to resolve issues with customers, and that it recently announced a £10 million fund for prepayment customers. It has begun an investigation, including into the practice of smart meter changes continuing last month. Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s chief executive, said: “Protecting vulnerable customers is an absolute priority. I am extremely disappointed.” He vowed that the company’s prepayment warrant activity would be suspended at least until the end of the winter.

Arvato said it “acts compliantly at all times in accordance with the regulatory requirements” and that The Times’s findings did not represent the company’s views or official guidance. A spokesman said: “If there has been any verbal or any other type of misconduct by individual employees, we deeply regret it.”

‘‘ If they’re just saying, ‘Oh I’m a single mum and I’ve got three kids and rah rah rah,’ that’s not a vulnerability. I’m a bit old-school and a bit hardnosed "