MPs speak out against energy rip off

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<div class="rxbodyfield" xmlns:o="urn:www.microsoft.com/office" xmlns:st1="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags" xmlns:st2="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags2" xmlns:w="urn:www.microsoft.com/word" xmlns:x="urn:www.microsoft.com/excel"><p>Over 130 MPs have expressed their anger at the treatment of around 700,000 vulnerable energy consumers, after it was discovered that three major energy suppliers had back-charged customers following a price increase.</p><p>Scottish Power, npower and Powergen have all been accused of punishing token meter customers by pushing up the prices without warning their customers - meaning that households who believed they had paid for their energy up front were now finding that they were in debt.</p><p>The problem is caused when the energy supplier fails to send out an engineer to adjust the token meters after a price increase, resulting in the customers getting lumped with a large back-charged amount later in the year.</p><p>MPs felt so seriously about the issue that a Commons motion criticising the three suppliers has been created censuring npower, Powergen and Scottish Power for their back-charging practices.</p><p>Teresa Perchard, Director of Policy for Citizens Advice, said: &quot;It is indefensible that around 700,000 consumers may find themselves in hundreds of pounds of debt through no fault of their own. This injustice caused by the reprehensible policies of three major energy suppliers is unacceptable. </p><p>&quot;We urge the three suppliers whose policies are pushing some of the most vulnerable members of society into debt to follow the good practice of the other suppliers and act responsibly towards their customers by only implementing price rises when they manually reset meters.&quot; </p><p>The matter has also been vehemently criticised by consumer watchdog energywatch, with its Director of Campaigns Adam Scorer adding: &quot;Three energy suppliers are creating instant misery for hundreds of thousands of consumers.&quot;</p><p>Could you save money by switching? <a href="http://www.uswitch.com/Energy/Index.aspx?">Compare your current energy bills on uSwitch.com and see how much you could save on your bills.</p><p><a href="http://www.adfero.co.uk" target="_blank"><img alt="track" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/dn.gif?feedid=362&amp;itemid=18091157" style="border:0 0 0" />&#169; Adfero Ltd</a></a></p></div>