{"value":{"id":79798,"askingMemberId":4308,"askingMember":null,"house":"Lords","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2014-07-30T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2014-08-13T00:00:00","uin":"HL1687","questionText":"To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the use of prepayment meters on the ability of lower income households to pay their energy bills.","answeringBodyId":63,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Energy and Climate Change","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":2539,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2014-08-18T00:00:00","answerText":"<p> </p><p>Since 2010, all major suppliers have voluntarily equalised tariffs between prepayment customers and standard credit customers but the price differential between customers using pre-payment meters (PPM) and those paying by direct debit can be more than £100 for a dual-fuel customer.</p><p>Whilst paying by PPM is more common among fuel poor than non-fuel poor households, a majority of fuel poor customer pay by other payment methods.</p><p>Of households who were fuel poor in England in 2012, around 27% paid for their electricity and 22% paid for their gas through PPM.</p><p> </p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Energy: Meters","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/79798","method":"GET"}]}