Disabled woman forced to run up £60 phone bill after being left without gas in her home

The woman, who has medical issues which means she needs to stay warm, moved into a new Kirklees Council house at the end of the year.

According to Dewsbury Community Outreach, a gas engineer attended the property but was unable to switch the gas on because money was owed by the previous tenant.

The engineer left the woman with a card and a premium rate phone number to ring.

The woman was left on hold for three lots of 30 minutes and had to keep going to the Vodafone shop for a £20 top-up.

She ran up a £60 bill – the equivalent of a month’s gas and electricity – and still hadn’t got through.

In desperation she contacted Dewsbury Community Outreach who ensured she was able to heat her home.

Now the charity wants to highlight the 0333 premium rate numbers which it says are costing vulnerable people dear.

Retired dentist Sue Baker, who works for the charity, accused British Gas of cashing in on the vulnerable.

She added: “With these numbers British Gas and Vodafone make a considerable amount of money out of the poor and vulnerable who can least afford to pay.

“This is made worse by the fact British Gas know the wait is very long - they told me they knew this could be over an hour and it is charged at premium rate by the minute - yet there is no phone back system or consideration for anyone using their services.

“We think this is unfair and it should be changed.”

A British Gas spokesman said: “We have a dedicated freephone number for our Pay As You Go Vulnerable Customers of 0800 294 8604, we’re sorry this wasn’t passed to the customer.

“We’ve since contacted the customer to offer to exchange her gas meter to a credit meter and she’s happy with the pay as you go meter, as she prefers to pay that way.”