AS meter reading day passes us by many are worried they won’t be able to get their meter readings in after many energy company sites crash due to high demand, however, Martin Lewis has told people “don’t panic.”

Yesterday was National Meter Reading Day, as many people rushed to get their meter readings in to avoid being overcharged for March usage.

From today (April 1) a new energy price cap is set to come into effect, which is expected to increase average annual energy bills by £693 or 54 percent.

Many scrambled to submit a meter reading to their supplier to make sure they were not charged for the set increase in April for energy they used in March.

The Northern Echo: A screengrab of Martin Lewis's Twitter updateA screengrab of Martin Lewis's Twitter update

Taking a reading means you have proof of how much energy you used before today’s increase and will ensure your bill is accurate.

However, due to the massive demand, many of the energy company sites were down, leaving many people panicking as to whether they can get their meter reading in time.

However, money saving expert Martin Lewis has issued an update via Twitter telling people “don’t panic.”

Mr Lewis recognised that the situation was “really frustrating” and stressed that this “shouldn’t have happened.”

He said: “We are alerting Ofgem to the problem, however, people should not panic, this is just a way of protecting yourself from them trying to overestimate your usage at a higher rate.

“If you were to do it tomorrow, or the day after that or the day after that, just doing it around now reduces the wriggle room for a problem with estimates.

“So a day or two out isn’t the biggest panic in the world, of course the best time to do it is 11.59pm tonight (March 31)

“But if you don’t get that, if you forget or if there’s something wrong with the firm, don’t panic, just make sure you’ve done one in the last few days or the next few days and you should be charged pretty close to the right amount.

“Also if you can’t send it through online or their phonelines are too busy, some of them do allow you to email a photo of your meter to count as a meter reading so check your firm’s website to see if that works, hope this helps.”

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