Your gas or electricity supplier might tell you they’re going to move you to prepayment if you owe them money.

Your supplier can’t make you move to prepayment if it wouldn’t be safe or practical. This means you can refuse to move to prepayment if an illness or disability means you’d be harmed if your gas or electricity was cut off. You can also refuse if you wouldn’t be able to get to or use your meter. 

Your supplier also has to follow rules set by Ofgem, the energy regulator. These rules mean your supplier can’t make you move to prepayment if:

• you don’t agree that you owe them money, and you’ve told them this – for example if the debt came from a previous tenant
• they haven’t offered you other ways to repay money you owe – for example a repayment plan or payments through your benefits
• they come to your home to install a prepayment meter without giving you notice – at least 7 days for gas and 7 working days for electricity
• they haven’t given you at least 28 days to repay your debt before writing to you to say they want to move you to prepayment 

Tell your supplier if any of these apply. If they still want to move you to prepayment, you should complain to get them to change their mind.