They might, but I can’t see it. Most people don’t want to be crippled financially by CCJs for 6 years or have bailiffs knocking on their doors.
It really wouldn’t take a huge number of refusers either. One in twenty could have a huge impact. While debt collection action is a risk, it takes time and the protest could in principle drag on for 6 months before customers were forced to pay up.
There are already plans underway for this to happen.
About 4.5 million people pay for their energy via pre-payment.
They don’t have the option not to pay.
Doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Firstly it will cripple the smaller suppliers and send them under – suppliers don’t make a huge per customer on energy supply, some operate at a loss and make profit via other services.
Secondly, you run the risk of destroying your credit rating / getting “blacklisted” and put on a pre-payment meter, where you’ll have the choice of paying a higher unit price or not having gas/electricity
I turned my central heating off completely in April. Throws R Us. Electric blanket too when push comes to shove. Much easier on the pocket.
The government will happily lock people up for not paying council tax, it directly affects the exchequer and they like to disuade mass defiance.
IIRC not paying the Poll Tax didn’t work, but the riot did,
I got a quarterly bill yesterday, it’s a grand…. It’s a fucking grand..
it won’t happen because people won’t act in unison, they’ll just suffer in silence with the electricity turned off, if it hasn’t already been cut off.
How is this supposed to work? They will just cut the power till you pay.
Important to note, the Conservatives at the time were happy with poll tax boycotts because they disproportionately affected Labour councils and Labour voters were dropping off the electoral roll to avoid paying.
What killed the poll tax was pensioners writing in because they felt a flat tax was unfair: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38382416](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38382416)
They may, in that it’s theoretically possible. It’s also theoretically possible that I get home tonight to find that Karen Gillan has broken into my house and is lying on my bed wearing nothing but a smile but that’s probably not happening either.
It’s a Poll Tax moment when they riot.
They will just cut you off surely?
Wouldn’t people just get their eleccy and gas turned off then? I know a lot of poorer people who are on pay as you go meters so if they stop paying they literally just get their power turned off until they pop another tenner in.
Just got an email from bulb updating t&cs to stop people taking strike action >< let’s them send debt collectors after you faster and add charges for collection.
For those considering not paying as protest, rather than because they can’t afford to:
*Put the money aside for fuck’s sake.*
If you go to court, and say you were refusing payment in protest, this carries little weight anyway, but it carries much less if you also spent the money on something else.
There’s no obligation to do so
Spare a thought for us fuckers who are stuck on PAYG Meters.
We don’t have the luxury of even staging a protest.
But we will shout our support from the other side of the barrel we are bent over.
I don’t know, I think most are happy with (for example) the oil sector’s £3bn a day profits for the last 50 years.
Do it. Everyone stops, force energy back in to public ownership. Make it non profit, move away from fossil fuels, create green jobs and allow people to afford to exist in a developed country.
I doubt it. The right wing press will gleefully report on each “scrounger” or “thief” who gets their power cut off – humiliating the individual as a warning to others.
that’s no good for those on prepaid meters :(, which accounts for the majority of properties in my city.
My fixed rate just came to an end – I’m going from £71 a month to £203.
Already had to sit down and look at what things I can cut back on to absorb this. It’s shocking and I can’t believe it’s not being talked about more.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have suggested not fixing energy prices at the end of last year.
27 comments
They might, but I can’t see it. Most people don’t want to be crippled financially by CCJs for 6 years or have bailiffs knocking on their doors.
It really wouldn’t take a huge number of refusers either. One in twenty could have a huge impact. While debt collection action is a risk, it takes time and the protest could in principle drag on for 6 months before customers were forced to pay up.
There are already plans underway for this to happen.
https://dontpay.uk/
About 4.5 million people pay for their energy via pre-payment.
They don’t have the option not to pay.
Doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Firstly it will cripple the smaller suppliers and send them under – suppliers don’t make a huge per customer on energy supply, some operate at a loss and make profit via other services.
Secondly, you run the risk of destroying your credit rating / getting “blacklisted” and put on a pre-payment meter, where you’ll have the choice of paying a higher unit price or not having gas/electricity
I turned my central heating off completely in April. Throws R Us. Electric blanket too when push comes to shove. Much easier on the pocket.
The government will happily lock people up for not paying council tax, it directly affects the exchequer and they like to disuade mass defiance.
IIRC not paying the Poll Tax didn’t work, but the riot did,
I got a quarterly bill yesterday, it’s a grand…. It’s a fucking grand..
it won’t happen because people won’t act in unison, they’ll just suffer in silence with the electricity turned off, if it hasn’t already been cut off.
How is this supposed to work? They will just cut the power till you pay.
Important to note, the Conservatives at the time were happy with poll tax boycotts because they disproportionately affected Labour councils and Labour voters were dropping off the electoral roll to avoid paying.
What killed the poll tax was pensioners writing in because they felt a flat tax was unfair: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38382416](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38382416)
They may, in that it’s theoretically possible. It’s also theoretically possible that I get home tonight to find that Karen Gillan has broken into my house and is lying on my bed wearing nothing but a smile but that’s probably not happening either.
It’s a Poll Tax moment when they riot.
They will just cut you off surely?
Wouldn’t people just get their eleccy and gas turned off then? I know a lot of poorer people who are on pay as you go meters so if they stop paying they literally just get their power turned off until they pop another tenner in.
Just got an email from bulb updating t&cs to stop people taking strike action >< let’s them send debt collectors after you faster and add charges for collection.
For those considering not paying as protest, rather than because they can’t afford to:
*Put the money aside for fuck’s sake.*
If you go to court, and say you were refusing payment in protest, this carries little weight anyway, but it carries much less if you also spent the money on something else.
There’s no obligation to do so
Spare a thought for us fuckers who are stuck on PAYG Meters.
We don’t have the luxury of even staging a protest.
But we will shout our support from the other side of the barrel we are bent over.
I don’t know, I think most are happy with (for example) the oil sector’s £3bn a day profits for the last 50 years.
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/revealed-oil-sectors-staggering-profits-last-50-years](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/revealed-oil-sectors-staggering-profits-last-50-years)
Won’t happen.
Do it. Everyone stops, force energy back in to public ownership. Make it non profit, move away from fossil fuels, create green jobs and allow people to afford to exist in a developed country.
I doubt it. The right wing press will gleefully report on each “scrounger” or “thief” who gets their power cut off – humiliating the individual as a warning to others.
that’s no good for those on prepaid meters :(, which accounts for the majority of properties in my city.
My fixed rate just came to an end – I’m going from £71 a month to £203.
Already had to sit down and look at what things I can cut back on to absorb this. It’s shocking and I can’t believe it’s not being talked about more.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have suggested not fixing energy prices at the end of last year.