In the UK, the most recent figures I found show millions of households are on prepayment meters, with one source saying around 7.4 million prepayment meters had been installed in Britain by March 2022.

What the latest reporting says

Recent reporting is focused more on forced installations than total numbers fitted, but it shows the issue is still active: Ofgem’s British Gas settlement news says the regulator closed an investigation into force-fitting practices in May 2026.
A 2023 government release said over 94,000 prepayment meters were forcibly installed under warrant in the previous year.

Older BBC and Sky reporting also showed the scale of the problem, with more than half a million forcibly installed over six years and about 97,000 installed in one year.

Simple answer

  • Total prepayment meters in Britain: about 7.4 million as of March 2022.
  • Forced installations in one recent year: over 94,000 in 2022.
  • Forcibly installed over six years: more than 500,000.

Why the numbers vary

The figures refer to different things: some count all prepayment meters , while others count only forced fitments carried out by suppliers.

That is why you may see very different headlines even when they are all about the same issue.

Context right now

The topic is back in the news because British Gas has agreed a major settlement linked to its treatment of prepayment meter customers.
So if you are asking whether this is still happening, the answer is yes, but the public debate now centers more on regulation, compensation, and vulnerable customers than on raw installation totals. Would you like the numbers split into forced installations only versus all prepayment meters in use?