Retired midwife’s energy bills rocketed to £400-A-MONTH due to meter error that wasn’t resolved for six years

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A retired midwife was left paying the energy bills for a neighbouring family-of-four due to a crossed meter. Judith Stenner’s bills rocketed from £60-a-month to more than £400 for much of the six years she has lived in her Whalley Range flat.

Told she was a ‘high energy user’, the 72-year-old did everything in her power to reduce her bills - rarely cooking at home and turning her heating off during the winter months. This story first appeared in the Mancunian Way newsletter - click here to sign up for free It was finally revealed this summer that her meter was crossed, but it took another 14 weeks - and for her MP to raise the matter in Parliament - before the necessary changes were made.

Speaking in the Commons, Manchester Gorton MP Afzal Khan insisted no vulnerable person ‘should be going to bed cold at night’ while Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt condemned the ‘appalling situation’.

ScottishPower has apologised and said overpayments and compensation will be considered as they recalculate the account. But Mr Khan says it's high time energy providers ‘get their act together’. “Judith has been treated terribly, and gaslit for years on the cost of her utilities,” he says. “I believe energy providers should be working for their customers, but it feels too often they are working against them.