Don’t Pay ……….. Will you be signing up? I’m in!

And they can even charge you for the installation www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/get-help-paying-your-bills/stop-your-energy-supplier-installing-a-prepayment-meter/

If you cancel your DD and don't pay the energy company is entirely within its rights to insist you have a pay meter installed. Provision through one of these automatically costs more. The energy companies have been dealing with people who haven't paid their bills for a long time and they know what to do/

rosie1959

No of course not will totally screw your credit rating

That was my very first thought. That might not matter so much if you’re retired, mortgage paid off etc but for someone younger who will need credit in the future, it’s a non-starter, I reckon.

Shinamae as I understood it, it’s an extra £100 on to the usual heating allowance which is £200 normally. However we are all getting £400 per household in addition to the pensioners heating allowance. Every household in the country is getting that £400. Most pensioner households will receive therefore £700 towards their energy bills this year, but pensioners who are on Pension Credit will get an additional £600 as well as the other payments. In addition we will all get a reduction to our Council Tax, paid for by government.
Quite a lot in my opinion.

Just me and thee then Sago!
(And I’m having second thoughts…)

maddyone

Every household in the country is receiving £400 towards bills. Pensioners are getting £300 instead of the usual £200. People on benefits (pension credit therefore) are getting £600 towards their bills alongside the other extra payments. Have you all forgotten?

Oh dear, I thought we were getting an EXTRA £300 on top of our £200….

No.

Every household in the country is receiving £400 towards bills. Pensioners are getting £300 instead of the usual £200. People on benefits (pension credit therefore) are getting £600 towards their bills alongside the other extra payments. Have you all forgotten?

No, I won’t be signing up either.

No I certainly won’t be doing this. It’s a ridiculous , irresponsible idea.
Every household is getting financial help, and the poorest will get additional assistance.
Obviously we will all hate having to pay this big increase but it’s a world wide problem isn’t it?
We will all have to get used to tightening our belts.

These are the rainy days our grandparents told us to save for.

Rosie51 makes a very good point; your credit rating will be negatively impacted if you do This. That, in turn, will make it harder for you to find a new energy provider who will accept you on a standard tariff; they'll charge charge you more because you're a risk to them. Should you wish to take out a loan, credit agreement, higher purchase etc, you'll find it difficult. I've had a lifetime's career in debt management and subsequent legal processes and I know that all it takes is one wrong step to screw up for years to come. Find another way to protest but don't do something that will only harm you.

My bill was £97 something last year, I am on a fixed till May and I am prepared to pay £250 a month when that finishes but that’s it I will not be paying any more…(I have already raised my direct debit myself to £130)……. crazy world we’re living in at the moment.) ??

No, I won't be signing up.

The Plan: It's simple: we are demanding a reduction of energy bills to an affordable level.

So what is an 'affordable level'? Everyone who signs up may have a different idea of what that is.

If you don’t pay at all after applying to court they can put you on a pay as you go meter which not only costs more but you have the inconvenience of buying a card to top it up from a shop that stocks them and is open.

No of course not will totally screw your credit rating

I think the reasons the poll tax was such a successful campaign are complex. It was finally doomed when a huge number of conservative MPs turned against it.

It was a shift from a property-owning tax to a "individual" tax which was intended to make local councils more "accountable" which it soon transpired it was not doing. It also was started in Scotland which contributed to its failure as there were a huge proportion of council houses there at the time (so this was a "new" tax for those people) and it was clear that better-off people in large houses would be paying less than before and less than poorer people who may have several working adults in one small home...
... then a huge proportion of these people did not "accept" the debt (in a legal sense) which, as I said, is not the same as having a contract with a private service provider (that an individual has agreed to) so the debts are technically enforceable whereas the poll tax was not able to be enforced legally. This was because we had a system where if a debt was never acknowledged it would lapse in 6 years anyway. I don't know if this is still true.

Scotland I think in year 1 about 15% of Scots refusing the bills as legitimate and by year 3 it was about 30%. This growth was partly fuelled by people taking their names off the register of electors (as though they had simply moved house) so no one knew how to bill anyone. The local councils lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue and were spending time and money trying to set up "collection" systems. This also had implications for voting of course.

I can't remember a lot more about it but the big thing here that makes the electric/gas/oil debts different is that the poll tax was a debt directly to the government and so affected the government directly.

I just don't feel this is the best way to do it. Governments around the world are the ones putting caps on fuel increases and other measures - if you look at Europe they have brought out a "Toolbox" of measures- I haven't read up on this but here it is if you want to look at it.. ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_5204

Abd here's an article which looks at how different countries are dealing with the rises:
think.ing.com/articles/energy-price-caps-could-be-game-changers-for-european-utilities

I think we should be lobbying MPs to put help and taxes in place so that the companies are taxed on "excess profits" and the government puts all this extra cash (including vat take) towards reducing bills according to need... starting with people on benefits.

Being threatened with legal action will have a very different impact on certain sections in society. I am not sure this is good advice.

I'm sure it isn't.

This is not the same as the poll tax.

Just saying... the poll tax was never acknowledged as a debt by those of us who didn't pay and the non-agreement was with the government via local government. We have already acknowledged the debt to our supplier by contracting for services. Legally it's very different.

Galaxy

Being threatened with legal action will have a very different impact on certain sections in society. I am not sure this is good advice.

Good point Galaxy

Baggytrazzas

Hi cancelling direct debits is a matter of choice but I think the agreement will be that unless paid by dd then the charges could be even higher due to the additional admin costs for the supplier.

Not paying at all isn't a great idea as fuel used will need to be paid for at some point.

Some suppliers do charge more if you don't have a direct debit so check their conditions.
I'm with Bulb, which is in administration but still struggling along, and it's charges are the same - D/D or not.

@FarNorth I also withheld Poll Tax. We emptied the house and stored everything with neighbours when Sheriff Clerk Officers came to value everything. Friends and fellow activists helped stage a protest at the house.
The Autumn is going to see considerable hardship for people resulting in civil disobedience.

The Poll Tax was done away with, so it was worth protesting, but most people did end up having to pay.
If you do have the money to pay, it's best to keep it aside in readiness.

Being threatened with legal action will have a very different impact on certain sections in society. I am not sure this is good advice.

I'm reminded of the Poll Tax - does anyone remember that there was such a shortfall in money due to non-payers (so easy to hide individuals but not physical property) and to make up for this loss a supplement was added to bills?

Many people, including me, withheld the supplement as a protest - I soon paid up when threatened with legal action.