Discontent is rising in the UK. Facing rising energy prices, a movement called “Don’t pay UK” is urging British citizens not to pay their gas and electricity bills from October, The Guardian reports.
The date was not chosen randomly. The ceiling on gas and electricity bills set by the regulator across the Channel will rise from £1,971 to £3,300 a year on 1 October, after an already spectacular 54% rise last April. And the rally could continue with a rise to £4,400 in January and £4,700 in April 2023, according to some analysts.
With this operation, the “Don’t pay UK” movement intends to put pressure on the government and energy operators to achieve a reduction in prices to a more sustainable level. “For this to work, we aim for the participation of one million people,” the group specifies on its website. “That’s the number we need to have serious power against the energy companies and the government that laugh at us.” But “Don’t pay UK” is still far from the mark: it currently has 92,280 participants.
Associations Warning
In the event that one million members are reached, “the members agree to cancel their automatic payment on October 1,” the movement continues. Before recalling that “massive non-payment is not a new idea, it happened in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and 1990s, when more than 17 million people refused to pay the Poll Tax (…)”, which had contributed in part to bringing down the government of Margaret Thatcher.
Citizens Advice, an independent organization that helps Britons with legal, debt, consumer or housing problems, says more and more customers can no longer top up their prepaid meter. It also noted that a record number of users could no longer afford to operate their refrigerators or heat their plates.
However, the charity Stepchange has warned against not paying your energy bills. In fact, gas and electricity bills are considered priority bills. If they are not settled, the energy supplier can resort to a debt collection agency or even obtain a court order to impose the installation of a prepaid meter.
An energy shock that increases inequalities
In the absence of a price shield, the first victims of the rise in energy prices in the English Channel are the most modest households, the latter devoting a greater part of their budget to this item of expenditure. A recent IMF study broadcast on The world shows that this energy shock resulted in a 16% increase in the cost of living for the most vulnerable 20% of British households, compared to a 7% increase for the richest 20% of households. Apart from Estonia, no country studied shows such a large gap.
The UK is now facing one of the biggest cost of living crises in decades. Inflation reached 9.4% in June and should be above 13% in October, according to the Bank of England.
Source: BFM TV
