cheers that was it, i kindly donated £5 for the gas since i visit here often. . the meter took about a pound off for 2 things, one for debt and one for emergency credit i think it said, and now it's sorted.. i think i recall reading somewhere that there is a daily charge when using emergency credit? maybe that's why there was more debt than usual though that doesn't explain the several months prior where this didn't happen

she has consistently paid £10-20 each week (she can't afford more..) and gotten the emergency credit available, so what has changed?

just a bit confused at the moment, my mother recently put £10 of credit onto our gas meter and usually we get about £3.50 of credit and the £6 emergency is paid back.. but this time round we got the £3.50~ of credit but the LCD states "emergency credit used" when it had just been repaid, this is the first time it's happened.. does anyone have a clue why it won't allow us to use emergency credit? cheers