A Cross party group of MSPs today joined anti-poverty campaigners asking ScottishPower to change how it charges some of its poorest customers.

They handed in a letter to the company's CEO Phillip Bowan in Glasgow calling on the energy giant to stop back-charging token electricity pre-payment meter customers.

But bosses dismissed claims they were penalising the poor who use prepayment meters.

And they snubbed calls to abandon back billing for customers, which the MSPs claim run up debts because of delays in resetting household meters.

The utility giant admits it can be as long as three months following a price rise before a meter is reset in the token payment system used in 100,000 Scottish Homes.

The delegation to the ScottishPower HQ at Atlantic Quay was led by Jackie Baillie, Convener of the Cross Party Cross Parliamentary Group on Debt.

She said: "Energy companies' failure to manually reset electricity ppms while prices have been soaring has led to thousands of the poorest consumers being hit by overnight price rises and increases in weekly expenditure on electricity of up to 138%."

Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill said: "ScottishPower must stop this shameful practice.  People on low incomes use these meters to avoid getting into debt. That makes it more repellent ScottishPower is hammering people with debts they didn't know they had."

Tommy Sheridan MSP said: "The thirst for these power firms to make profit is obscene."

A ScottishPower spokesman said: "In Scotland, we have the most prepayment meters but we are the only company that looks at our meters every three months to try to avoid customers getting into debt."

The row comes days before the European Commission is to decide if Spanish firm Iberdrola can go ahead with its £11.6bn takeover bid for ScottishPower.

Sources: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk

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