Martin Lewis points sensible meter warning as authorities take into account ‘compensation’

Money-saving guru Martin Lewis has issued another smart meter warning.

The financial expert took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, April 29, to share the government’s response to him flagging issues.

Martin tweeted out: “This is the sec of state for energy’s reply that I just received after I raised a number of critical issues with her in a meeting including – the moral hazard of overly high standing charges. The huge number of broken smart meters – lack of competition in energy switching and more.”

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Claire Coutinho replied back: “Almost 90% of smart and advanced meters installed in the UK are working correctly but you are right to raise concerns about those meters which are not working.

“We have now got nine suppliers to sign up to our measures to offer better consumer protection for broken smart meters, which covers over 60% of the market and gives consumers better access to repairs and replacements after their 12 month warranty has expired.

“We have further asked Ofgem and suppliers to ensure fixing faulty smart meters is a priority and I am considering further steps to speed up compensation and better hold suppliers to account. This will be critical to maintain public support for a measure which coupled with our reforms will be able to deliver households a significant saving off of their bills.”

According to Birmingham Live, one disgruntled customer commented: “Martin. What would be useful is if the energy companies posted a breakdown of the standing charge? Because it would then be transparent which parts are for operating costs and which are ‘temporary’. I.e. to pay for failed suppliers. The latter should be clearly time limited.”

Another dissatisfied customer expressed their frustration with their smart meter, stating: “My ‘smart’ meter was fitted by @OctopusEnergy 1/2/24 it’s never worked, still waiting for customer data, bloody joke”.

Meanwhile, a different customer inquired about the situation for those with older generation meters: “What about people with 1st gen meters? I changed supplier and now don’t have a working display cos I have an earlier meter.”

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