Normal pre-payment meters are installed to allow people a convenient way to repay debt. Every time that money is put on the payment device (whether its a key, card or token) a portion of that money goes to repay the debt. For example, if someone owes £200 when the meter is fitted, they might be paying £2 a week to reduce that debt. A year later they'll have paid £104 off the debt but still owe £96. If they then decide to change supplier, the £96 will still be owed to the company that fitted they key meter in the first place. Having said that, I thought it was now possible to change supplier even with a key meter with debt, provided that the debt is small. Someone else will no doubt be more clued up on this than me though.

Ok. It could just be that the meter reader's got it wrong - its happened to me before now. Like Helford's already said, the first thing you (or your better half) need to do is to compare the reading on the bill with the reading on the meter. Let us know what they are.

How long has she been with edf? What is the current reading and previous reading? Were either/both of them estimates? Do you have the old bills (or a history of what the readings were over the past couple of years)? What tariff is she on? Have her fortnightly payments increased in line with the rises in electricity prices? Was she on Super Tariff when she was with Northern Electric/Npower?

As far as I am aware, and I'm not a lawyer so please don't act in reliance of this without taking proper legal advice, recordings of phone calls are not admissible but a transcript of them is. Who was the phone call between and why do you ask?

This is absolutely monstrous. You have every right to be angry. You should also be relieved that the chap that received your data wasn't a criminal or you could've found yourself in all sorts of difficulty. I'm no expert but it seems to me that a criminal offence might have taken place, and, if so, I would be tempted to report it to the police. First though I would a) wait for someone who is an expert to give you more certain advice and b) try and get, from either Lloyds themselves or the information commisioner's office the name of the data controller at Lloyds (assuming there isn't someone here who could tell you). This is someone who is legally responsible for ensuring that Lloyds fulfill their obligations under the act. There is at least one court that has threatened to jail a data controller before now (albeit in different circumstances)