The ESB has reassured thousands of token meter customers who have unwittingly found themselves in arrears due to an error in adjusting for electricity price rises that they will not be denied credit when they try to buy goods from ESB stores.
It emerged today that some of the ESB's 20,000 such customers throughout the State had been undercharged because pre-paid tokens did not take account of price rises of up to 29 per cent since the deregulation of the electricity market in 2001. The report appears in today's Echonewspaper.
Many of the customers who use pre-paid cards, which can be bought from ESB shops, the post office and other pay points, are older people or live in low-income households. It is understood the error emerged when a customer attempted to buy goods on credit at an ESB shop and was denied credit by the finance company because of his ESB arrears.
Some customers have also consulted with the Government-funded Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) because they cannot pay the money owed. It is understood that the average owed per customer due to the error is between €200 and €300.
However, it is also believed that not all of the 20,000 token customers are affected. Around one-third of these customers were paying the correct tariff since 2001 because they purchased their tokens at ESB shops, where staff had access to their account information.
Where tokens were bought at post offices or elsewhere, allowance could not be made for the price changes.
A spokesman for the ESB told ireland.comthe finance company that arranges credit for people buying goods at ESB stores had been told that anyone owing arrears due to this particular error was not to be denied credit.
MABS has urged anyone concerned about the arrears to contact the service for advice. It is understood that no customer is in danger of immediate disconnection due to the arrears as discussions are under way to resolve the matter.