Most thorough piece I’ve read yet about the “Don’t Pay” movement – seems like the jury’s still out on how much momentum it’s building but interesting to read the comments of the energy bosses in this piece who seem quite rattled (to the point of making threats!) – and another thing that struck me was how many of the interviewees appear to be cancelling their DDs in solidarity, rather than out of necessity.
The New Statesman. Anoosh Chakelian, Emma Haslett, Phil Clarke Hill
“It’s not normal in this country for us to talk about money. But this is different,” said Fern Bast, sipping a black tea in her colourful living room. The 69-year-old pensioner, who used to design theatre props and sets before a stint as a council housing officer, has had enough.
“This house is refusing to pay energy bills,” declared a hazard tape-style yellow-and-black-striped poster plastered on her front window – above the pots of jasmine and carnations jumbled on the pavement in front of her rented terrace.
Earlier this year, her monthly energy bill rose from £110 to £179 when her provider folded and she was moved to Shell. Last month, she cancelled her direct debit. She is refusing to pay her energy bill, and she is not alone.
On this quiet cul-de-sac in Todmorden, a West Yorkshire market town in the Calder Valley, some of her neighbours are joining her, others are not – but all are worried about the winter.
How much are energy bills rising?
Don’t Pay, a UK protest movement, has 133,650 Britons (at the time of writing) pledging to go on “bill strike” come 1 October, when the energy price cap will rise by 80 per cent. It takes inspiration from the mass non-payment of the poll tax in 1990, when 17 million refused to pay Margaret Thatcher’s hated community charge (reversed the following year).
Bast is on the group’s media team. Disabled from a back injury, she can’t go to rallies. “I was a bit frustrated, because I’m not really an armchair activist: having a moan on Facebook just doesn’t cut it for me,” she said.
“I can write to Ofgem, I can write to Shell – and I have done – but they’re not going to listen to me. It’s not going to make a difference. The only thing that’s going to make a difference is to hit them where it hurts, with the money.”
Bast lives on a fixed income: the basic state pension of £141.85 a week, plus £80 a month from her Islington Council pension. She is a carer for her son, who is mentally ill and lives semi-independently down the road, and her mother, who has just gone into dementia care. “That’s something that concerns me; the care home is treated as a business, so it doesn’t have a cap [on energy costs]… And they can’t turn the electricity down or anything.” (The energy price cap doesn’t apply to businesses.)
“The only way to make a difference is to hit them where it hurts, with the money”
“Thinking of the poll tax and civil unrest, it’s a huge thing. Isn’t it awful, but I actually hope [Don’t Pay] does [lead to civil unrest],” said Bast. “We’ve got to shift this. That’s all we’ve got… It’s all very well saying ‘don’t pay’, but we’ll be back to ‘can’t pay’. We’ll be back to street kitchens.”
Don’t Pay is demanding energy bills are reduced to a more affordable level (some activists involved suggest pre-April prices, before the impact of the Ukraine invasion kicked in). If this is ignored, they will encourage their supporters to cancel their direct debits by 1 October only if pledges reach 1 million. Yet already, people the New Statesman heard from are saying they either cannot, or will not, pay.
[deleted]
I know the pain of dealing with shell, hours to get through weeks to respond to emails there terrible.
Good on anyone doing this, I want to keep a clean credit score in case I need to draw on credit to get by over the coming winter.
My energy bills are already £200 a month an 80% rise is going to mean paying £360 come October. But I am in a privileged position and can easily soak up this rise I feel for anyone that can’t.
I’m on prepayment meters and refuse to pay, that’ll show ’em!
I’m going to have more ice tea. Fill a cup with cold water, add a tea bag, let it steep for a few hours in the fridge overnight, add lemon, or milk, drink. Put sugar in there somewhere if you want it a bit less healthy.
Great way to completely f*ck up your credit rating that is
Energy providers will still treat you the same as they always do to those who do not pay and it won’t be fun dealing with that. Something needs to be done but a general strike is all I can think of to get the government to sit up and take notice. For everyone who does not pay, millions will. Millions striking over the cost of living for days on end will result in action far more swiftly.
My current electric prices mean at the most I am paying £3 a day. A quick calculation with the new proposed prices means my bill goes up to £5 a day.
Cancelling your direct debit and paying quarterly will mean that for most people your unit price will be even higher.
The energy companies will win this one I fear.
I have no intention personally of not paying for what I have used but rather cut down massively and not line their pockets with vastly inflated requests for money via direct debit.
Not paying at all could damage your credit rating. But making sure your account is never in credit and only paying what you owe them could hurt them without hurting you.
It’s either pay more for reliable electricity, or pay less for blackouts.
Make your pick. Electricity doesn’t grow on fucking trees. Shit don’t make themselves.
Boy do I have a way of saving money for them…£10 a year in fact
I can’t blame them. Energy companies making record profits while the public suffers. Something has got to give. How can these executives sleep at night?
Tea Party, Round Deux…
I keep reading about ‘but your credit rating’.
Whilst my credit rating is important to me (I’ve spent years reversing bad choices made in my youth) I’m not sure I follow…
The energy bills predicted increase is beyond what (I’m assuming – unless everyone is dealing drugs on the side, which I sometimes thing they are, given how cash rich people seem to be) most people can not only afford, but actually pay for. £400 / £500 a month to a single person on a good wage is eating into most of their disposable income. The same amount to someone with x1 child is eating everything. x2 (or more) children and they’re going to default anyway.
And when every household in this country is lumped with paying this amount, what do you think is going to happen this this countries economy?
These energy bills are going to grind the entire thing to a halt. They are a literal spanner in the workings of this countries ability to function. There will be no restaurants, no pub nights out, no weekend shopping, no nice clothes, massively reduced high street footfall (even more so) no theatre, no cinema, no gigs. All we will cover are the essentials (and even then, barely).
Jobs will go. Businesses will fail. It will be utterly (economically) apocalyptic.
But… my credit rating!
I just dont get it.
How does missing payments magic up energy supply?
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether people “don’t pay” in their droves or not. I assume it’ll get little coverage in the press and because it’s a band of individuals it has a large probability of failure after energy companies start sending scary letters throught the post about “debt collection” etc.
I’m guessing the energy companies will just prepayment meter them and mark them as “do not allow direct debit payment” in future and share the property (not bill payer) details with the other companies as “refuses to pay”.
17 comments
Most thorough piece I’ve read yet about the “Don’t Pay” movement – seems like the jury’s still out on how much momentum it’s building but interesting to read the comments of the energy bosses in this piece who seem quite rattled (to the point of making threats!) – and another thing that struck me was how many of the interviewees appear to be cancelling their DDs in solidarity, rather than out of necessity.
Anyway, you can read here if you can’t get behind the paywall! https://archive.ph/hU68P
The New Statesman. Anoosh Chakelian, Emma Haslett, Phil Clarke Hill
“It’s not normal in this country for us to talk about money. But this is different,” said Fern Bast, sipping a black tea in her colourful living room. The 69-year-old pensioner, who used to design theatre props and sets before a stint as a council housing officer, has had enough.
“This house is refusing to pay energy bills,” declared a hazard tape-style yellow-and-black-striped poster plastered on her front window – above the pots of jasmine and carnations jumbled on the pavement in front of her rented terrace.
Earlier this year, her monthly energy bill rose from £110 to £179 when her provider folded and she was moved to Shell. Last month, she cancelled her direct debit. She is refusing to pay her energy bill, and she is not alone.
On this quiet cul-de-sac in Todmorden, a West Yorkshire market town in the Calder Valley, some of her neighbours are joining her, others are not – but all are worried about the winter.
How much are energy bills rising?
Don’t Pay, a UK protest movement, has 133,650 Britons (at the time of writing) pledging to go on “bill strike” come 1 October, when the energy price cap will rise by 80 per cent. It takes inspiration from the mass non-payment of the poll tax in 1990, when 17 million refused to pay Margaret Thatcher’s hated community charge (reversed the following year).
Bast is on the group’s media team. Disabled from a back injury, she can’t go to rallies. “I was a bit frustrated, because I’m not really an armchair activist: having a moan on Facebook just doesn’t cut it for me,” she said.
“I can write to Ofgem, I can write to Shell – and I have done – but they’re not going to listen to me. It’s not going to make a difference. The only thing that’s going to make a difference is to hit them where it hurts, with the money.”
Bast lives on a fixed income: the basic state pension of £141.85 a week, plus £80 a month from her Islington Council pension. She is a carer for her son, who is mentally ill and lives semi-independently down the road, and her mother, who has just gone into dementia care. “That’s something that concerns me; the care home is treated as a business, so it doesn’t have a cap [on energy costs]… And they can’t turn the electricity down or anything.” (The energy price cap doesn’t apply to businesses.)
“The only way to make a difference is to hit them where it hurts, with the money”
“Thinking of the poll tax and civil unrest, it’s a huge thing. Isn’t it awful, but I actually hope [Don’t Pay] does [lead to civil unrest],” said Bast. “We’ve got to shift this. That’s all we’ve got… It’s all very well saying ‘don’t pay’, but we’ll be back to ‘can’t pay’. We’ll be back to street kitchens.”
Don’t Pay is demanding energy bills are reduced to a more affordable level (some activists involved suggest pre-April prices, before the impact of the Ukraine invasion kicked in). If this is ignored, they will encourage their supporters to cancel their direct debits by 1 October only if pledges reach 1 million. Yet already, people the New Statesman heard from are saying they either cannot, or will not, pay.
[deleted]
I know the pain of dealing with shell, hours to get through weeks to respond to emails there terrible.
Good on anyone doing this, I want to keep a clean credit score in case I need to draw on credit to get by over the coming winter.
My energy bills are already £200 a month an 80% rise is going to mean paying £360 come October. But I am in a privileged position and can easily soak up this rise I feel for anyone that can’t.
I’m on prepayment meters and refuse to pay, that’ll show ’em!
I’m going to have more ice tea. Fill a cup with cold water, add a tea bag, let it steep for a few hours in the fridge overnight, add lemon, or milk, drink. Put sugar in there somewhere if you want it a bit less healthy.
Great way to completely f*ck up your credit rating that is
Energy providers will still treat you the same as they always do to those who do not pay and it won’t be fun dealing with that. Something needs to be done but a general strike is all I can think of to get the government to sit up and take notice. For everyone who does not pay, millions will. Millions striking over the cost of living for days on end will result in action far more swiftly.
My current electric prices mean at the most I am paying £3 a day. A quick calculation with the new proposed prices means my bill goes up to £5 a day.
Cancelling your direct debit and paying quarterly will mean that for most people your unit price will be even higher.
The energy companies will win this one I fear.
I have no intention personally of not paying for what I have used but rather cut down massively and not line their pockets with vastly inflated requests for money via direct debit.
Not paying at all could damage your credit rating. But making sure your account is never in credit and only paying what you owe them could hurt them without hurting you.
It’s either pay more for reliable electricity, or pay less for blackouts.
Make your pick. Electricity doesn’t grow on fucking trees. Shit don’t make themselves.
Boy do I have a way of saving money for them…£10 a year in fact
I can’t blame them. Energy companies making record profits while the public suffers. Something has got to give. How can these executives sleep at night?
Tea Party, Round Deux…
I keep reading about ‘but your credit rating’.
Whilst my credit rating is important to me (I’ve spent years reversing bad choices made in my youth) I’m not sure I follow…
The energy bills predicted increase is beyond what (I’m assuming – unless everyone is dealing drugs on the side, which I sometimes thing they are, given how cash rich people seem to be) most people can not only afford, but actually pay for. £400 / £500 a month to a single person on a good wage is eating into most of their disposable income. The same amount to someone with x1 child is eating everything. x2 (or more) children and they’re going to default anyway.
And when every household in this country is lumped with paying this amount, what do you think is going to happen this this countries economy?
These energy bills are going to grind the entire thing to a halt. They are a literal spanner in the workings of this countries ability to function. There will be no restaurants, no pub nights out, no weekend shopping, no nice clothes, massively reduced high street footfall (even more so) no theatre, no cinema, no gigs. All we will cover are the essentials (and even then, barely).
Jobs will go. Businesses will fail. It will be utterly (economically) apocalyptic.
But… my credit rating!
I just dont get it.
How does missing payments magic up energy supply?
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether people “don’t pay” in their droves or not. I assume it’ll get little coverage in the press and because it’s a band of individuals it has a large probability of failure after energy companies start sending scary letters throught the post about “debt collection” etc.
I’m guessing the energy companies will just prepayment meter them and mark them as “do not allow direct debit payment” in future and share the property (not bill payer) details with the other companies as “refuses to pay”.