Coronavirus and your energy supply

Last updated 10.30am Tuesday 24th March

If your income has suddenly gone down as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, paying your usual bills could make it difficult for you to afford groceries or medicine. And if you pay for gas and electricity by pre-payment meter, you might be worried about how you’re going to top up your card or key if you have to self-isolate.

Whatever the situation, here’s everything you need to know.

For prepaid energy customers

If you’re not self-isolating yet, and you can afford to do so, consider topping up your meter a little more than you usually would, to build up credit for later.

If your usual top-up shop closes, you may be able to top up at the Post Office or find an alternative vendor at Paypoint.com or Payzone.co.uk. Or contact your supplier, and they will help.

If you can’t top up your meter – because you’re ill or self-isolating, and don’t have a trusted person available to top up for you; or if you’re having financial difficulty due to coronavirus – tell your energy supplier straightaway. You can find their contact details on their website or on any letters you’ve received from them. They will find a way to help you. Depending on your supplier, they may be able to:

• Send someone to top up your prepayment card or token
• Add funds to your account
• Post you a pre-loaded top-up card.

This support might take a few days to come through, so make sure you call them as soon as you realise you’re at risk of running out of credit.

The energy suppliers have agreed that no credit meters will be disconnected during the outbreak. You will at some point have to repay any credit that your supplier lends you – ask them when and how this is going to work and make a note of it.

For all customers

All the energy suppliers have agreed they will support any customer who is having financial difficulty because of the coronavirus outbreak – so again, get in touch with your energy provider as soon as you find that your financial circumstances have changed. They might be able to reassess, reduce or pause your bill, and/or any debt repayments, for a temporary period.

Don’t forget you can find information about wider financial support to help you through the outbreak at gov.uk/coronavirus.

 

We’ll be posting regular updates for customers on our website https://www.financialwellnessgroup.co.uk/blog/ so please keep checking for more information. We’ll also be updating our Facebook page regularly: https://www.facebook.com/financialwellnessgroup – so please follow us there too. We are also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/finwellgrp.