BORD GÁIS ENERGY has announced a moratorium on disconnecting customers who struggle to pay their energy bills for the duration of the current level 5 restrictions. 

The energy supplier announced the moratorium this evening, lasting until 1 December. 

However, the company has asked those who are experiencing financial difficulty to make contact, saying it will work with them to find a payment plan to suit their circumstances.

“We are here to help and we commit to being as flexible as possible to work with our customers to try to find solutions. We can help set up sustainable payment plans that will ease the worry at this time and avoid undue debt build-up on their accounts,” Bord Gáis Energy said in a statement.

Last month the energy provider froze residential gas and electricity prices ahead of the winter period, “until at least March 2021″. 

The company added that it has ceased door-to-door residential and commercial sales and is advising customers to submit meter readings either online or via its call centre in order to ensure that their bills are as accurate as possible. 

“Coming into the colder winter period, we are committed to leaving no one in the cold, we are reassuring customers that we will continue to carry out service and repair work and advising them that if they have concerns about their boiler to get in touch with us.

“We have screening questions for customers to answer before our engineer will go into any home and have a robust set of procedures in place to keep both our customers and our engineers safe, to prevent against community transmission of Covid-19.”

The energy company’s announcement follows Electric Ireland who announced a six-week moratorium on energy disconnections on Wednesday. 

The company said that a gas price freeze, which has seen a 11.5% decrease in prices from 1 April, will remain in effect for the winter months.