Many people in Wales have scorned a plan for people to stop paying their energy bills as price continue to skyrocket.
Energy bills regulated by the Ofgem price cap could rise from the current £1,971 a year to £3,359 in October and there is a small but growing campaign for people to refuse to pay their energy bills as a form of protest. A group called Don't Pay UK want one million households to go on a form of energy bill strike if there is no more Government help with bills by October 1.
The Don't Pay website says: "Even if a fraction of those of us who are paying by direct debit stop our payments, it will be enough to put energy companies in serious trouble, and they know this. We want to bring them to the table and force them to end this crisis.
"On 1 October, if the government and big energy companies have not reduced our bills to an affordable level and if we have critical mass pledged to cancel their bills, we all cancel them on the same day. It can only work if we believe in each other and show the powers that be that we would not stand for being treated as cash cows."
How have people in Wales reacted to this?
There were more than 500 comments regarding this campaign on WalesOnline's Facebook page. Some of which backed the idea, including Tristan Llŷr Lloyd who said: "Signed up to these guys last week and have flyers on the way to spread awareness of the campaign. We need to get the message out there cause this can’t keep happening."
However, others warned that it could have some pretty dire consequences. Steven Thomas was sceptical pointing out: "That’s not going to work if the energy company sees you not paying your bill and you’re on a quarterly meter they will send in an engineer and switch out your current meter for a key meter on pay and go/top up and you’ll be worse off because of higher unit prices and standing charges going up and if you haven’t got the money to top up the meter the energy companies won’t keep your power on. And you’ll still be left with the bill you didn’t pay and if the energy company takes it to court for recovery action then you’ll be lumbered with court fees on top. This is a silly thing to do."
Claire Cooper agreed adding: "It is a good idea for those in a position to be able to do it... but please remember that your credit score could be negatively affected by non payment, which can impact you severely when obtaining or renewing a mortgage, private renting or getting credit etc."
Many others pointed out that though suppliers of wholesale gas and energy were currently making whopping profits, many energy companies were struggling because they also had to play the massively inflated prices.
"Thing is, I'm with a small energy firm holding on by the skin of its teeth to survive," explained Rebecca David. "If I cancelled my [direct debit] for just one month and so did a bulk of their other customers, chances are they would be forced to stop trading and I'd get forced onto an extortionate tariff with one of the big five. And that's the last thing I want to happen."
Another potential issue with the proposed protest was that many of the worst effected by the energy rise, those on prepaid meters, would simply be cut off if they didn't pay. Victoria Bamford commented: Only problem with this is the people who are paying the highest rate per unit for gas/electric are the people on prepayment meters. They don’t have the luxury of not topping up their meters. But overall I do think it’s a good idea. But also EVERYONE should be paying the same price per unit. It shouldn’t be a postcode lottery or based on dd/pp etc it’s should be the same for everyone across the board."
Should you stop paying your bills?
Debt charity StepChange has said not paying energy bills can mean homes get their gas and electricity disconnected.
Speaking to the Mirror, Richard Lane at StepChange said: “If you don’t pay your gas or electricity bills, your supplier can collect the debt you owe using a debt collection agency. They can also get a court warrant to enter your home to fit a pre-payment card meter.”
He added that anything you owe your energy supplier can then be added to this meter. In the worst-case scenario energy firms can remove your meters and cut power off, but this is extremely unusual.
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has previously warned of possible energy bill strikes as households refuse to pay soaring costs.
Speaking on ITV programme Peston last month, Lewis said: "I think I can categorise it more accurately now, the big movement that I am seeing is an increase of growth in people calling for a non-payment of energy bills, mass non-payment.
"Effectively a consumer strike on energy bills and getting rid of the legitimacy of paying that. It’s small at the moment, there’s a Twitter handle with about 5,000 followers.
"We are getting close to a Poll Tax moment on energy bills coming into October and we need the Government to get a handle on that, because once it starts becoming socially acceptable not to pay energy bills people will stop paying energy bills and you’re not going to cut everyone off.”
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