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Energy Prices

The hon. Member for Wells (Tessa Munt) raised the issue of people on prepayment meters. There are two other key issues concerning people. One million households across the UK do not have access to a bank account so they cannot have direct debits; likewise, there are those who do not have access to the internet—the digital divide. Further to the point that the Secretary of State made about the energy companies that are writing to their customers, I received one of those letters asking me to go on to direct debit. I called my energy company, E.on. It wanted to put me on to a monthly payment, which would have cost me at least a third more and I would have had to wait until May before I could reassess the situation. So even when energy companies are writing to their customers, myself included, they are not offering consumers the best deal. I cannot move on to direct debit because the company wants to charge me more than I pay already.