Disabled rights - pre paid meter

newbie2010

Hello. I've been searching the net for over an hour now without much success so thought I would ask here.
The situation is this. My friend has two children with Aspergers. One child is 14 and the other 2. They cannot be left alone and the 2 yo needs watching 24/7. The eldest spends most of his time at home in his room. My friend herself is on the autism spectrum although not high functioning like the children.

She is with Southern electric for her gas and Eon for electric. She owes SE £400 due to bill errors on 'their' part. As a result of a huge debt she was forced onto pre paid meters.
She 'wants' to pay SE more to get the debt paid quicker but they refuse. She has to walk just over 2 miles to top up and if she runs out in the evening/night, there is nowhere open unless she travels for around 40 minutes on two buses.

Because of the children she cannot afford to run out of either supply and wants to get her meter changed and pay by direct debit. SE have refused. Does she have any rights?

Richie-from-the-Boro

newbie2010 wrote: »

Hello. I've been searching the net for over an hour now without much success so thought I would ask here.
The situation is this. My friend has two children with Aspergers. One child is 14 and the other 2. They cannot be left alone and the 2 yo needs watching 24/7. The eldest spends most of his time at home in his room. My friend herself is on the autism spectrum although not high functioning like the children.

She is with Southern electric for her gas and Eon for electric. She owes SE £400 due to bill errors on 'their' part. As a result of a huge debt she was forced onto pre paid meters.
She 'wants' to pay SE more to get the debt paid quicker but they refuse. She has to walk just over 2 miles to top up and if she runs out in the evening/night, there is nowhere open unless she travels for around 40 minutes on two buses.

Because of the children she cannot afford to run out of either supply and wants to get her meter changed and pay by direct debit. SE have refused. Does she have any rights?

- if anyone in the dwelling is in receipt of the appropriate ' passported ' benefit they can have the discount applied
- until the default account is in the clear SE or indeed any other supplier is unlikely to ever consider a return to a DD account
- there is no legislation that I know of that can force SE to do what you suggest even if the dwelling fits the passported profile
- if your friend 'can afford' to pay SE more then paying that same 'more' each top~up will reduce the 2 mile walk frequency

If your friend speaks to SE and can ' evidence' the fact that she is eligible for the HomeWarm 2011/2012 discount scheme, and gets the £120 discount on her bills then she should also ask SE the Direct Debit question again in the light of her 'new eligibility' status, they may exercise disgresion !

chanz4

No regulator can enforce payment terms, in essence you are asking for credit.

spiro

newbie2010 wrote: »

She 'wants' to pay SE more to get the debt paid quicker but they refuse.

As an example, if there is a debt of £400 on the meter and she is repaying this at £3.50 per week then there is NOTHING that should stop her from phoning SSE and saying 'I want to pay off £100 using a debit card'. If they refuse to accept the payment tell them you want to raise a formal complaint.

chanz4

Following on from above, they can just do a debt adjustment on the meter via your paypoint

bengasman

newbie2010 wrote: »

...Because of the children she cannot afford to run out of either supply ...

Let's use some common sense here in stead of making it an issue of The Rights of the Disable Community.
If it's that important not to run out, she can top up one or two days earlier, and the problem will not occur.
Get a grip.

Andy_WSM

bengasman wrote: »

Let's use some common sense here in stead of making it an issue of The Rights of the Disable Community.
If it's that important not to run out, she can top up one or two days earlier, and the problem will not occur.
Get a grip.

Agreed. All too often we call on "rights". Shouldn't I have a "right" too as I work my nuts off for 50-60 hours a week?

bengasman

It's a know fact in my industry that disabled customers are about 7 times more likely to complain about something than their able-bodied counterparts. Bearing in mind that the majority of the population is likely to do a little bit more for disable people than they would do normally, it seems a foregone conclusion that appreciation is not spelled with capital A in the disabled community.

chanz4

disability discrimination act covers all, it states that they shouldnt be treated different.

C_Mababejive

She has all the rights afforded to her under the law of the land in which she lives.

If she wants to pay more off her debt than her supplier will allow then she must have a surfeit of cash. Maybe she should then add this as credit to build up a buffer so that she isnt trotting off to the shop when the meter runs out.

newbie2010

Thank you to those with helpful replies. And to those who think she is using the 'disability' card or needs to get a grip thanks also. My friend 'has not' complained about this and is not wanting special treatment. This is something 'I' decided to look into on her behalf due to the problems she can be faced when needing to top up, or even just to go out in general. I know how severely her youngest can be affected by minor things and 'I' was enquiring as to whether there is anything I could do to help. Before anyone says anything, I would physically help more but I live over 2 hours away from her and she has no family close by. Maybe if you had a friend who faces an uphill struggle everyday to get the eldest to school and has a 2yo who will inflict serious harm to himself by running at walls etc, under stress of having to go out, you too may have a soft spot in your heart to see if anything can be done to 'ease' their life.