Don’t Pay is a grassroots campaign opposing the rise in energy bills.
We demand:
- an immediate reversal of the price hikes
- an end to the enforcement of prepayment meters
- and a social energy tariff – so no one goes cold this winter
It’s up to all of us. Let’s build the strike in our local communities and #TakeBackPower.
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What we're striking for
Don't Pay is a grassroots movement demanding a fair price for energy for everyone. This is what we're striking for.
What you need to know about striking
Here's what you need to know about joining.
Why an energy bills strike?
We’re facing a catastrophe on an unimaginable scale this winter. We’ll strike to break this system that stands by while people rack up debt or freeze in their homes.
What is Don't Pay?
Millions of us won’t be able to afford our energy bills this winter. We can't let that happen. Don’t Pay exists to bring us all together, build our leverage and fight back.
The Plan:
It’s simple: we’re demanding a reduction of energy bills to an affordable level. Our leverage is mass non-payment – millions of people saying they won’t pay if the government doesn’t step in.
It isn’t a new idea. More than 17 million people refused to pay the Poll Tax in the 1980/90s, forcing the government to abandon the tax. We can do it again.
Now, we’re facing a social catastrophe and have no option other than to act. While energy companies are set to rake in £170 billion in profit in the next two years, we’re paying 96% more than we did last winter.
2 million of us already can’t pay, 7 million are struggling to keep up and we know millions more won’t pay. By pledging to strike, we can bring together everyone who can’t and everyone who won’t pay to fight back as one.
Here’s how we do it:
Build support.
For this to work, we need as many people as possible to join in, take ownership of this campaign and build the strike. It's a big ask, but this crisis is bigger.
So far, we’ve mobilised hundreds of thousands of people and thousands have joined their local Don’t Pay groups. But it’s up to all of us to get out there in our communities – to knock on our neighbours’ doors, hold stalls, run events and spread the word. This is how we build our collective strength.
And it’s how we become what the government and energy companies fear most: a truly grassroots campaign. A campaign run entirely by volunteers across the country, building this up street by street, estate by estate and city by city.
We need people like you to support and build the strike.
Gather a critical mass of pledges.
It’s about safety in numbers: we’ll only do this if we get a critical mass of people pledging to cancel their bills.
Mass non-payment is already underway. 2 million of us already couldn’t pay by the end of June and, now, more than 7 million of us are struggling to keep up with bills. We need to bring everyone into our campaign.
That’s how we demonstrate serious power – our leverage – to the energy companies taking us all for a ride and a government that won’t act in our interests unless we make them.
Withold payment from 1 December unless our demands are met.
If the government and energy companies haven’t met our demands, and we have a critical mass ready to withhold payment, we all stop paying them on the same day.
It’ll only work if we believe in each other and show the powers that be we won’t not stand for being treated like cash cows any longer.
We need help
It's all of us organising and spreading the word that’ll make this happen.
We need a lot of people, so we have to think big. That means aiming to create the infrastructure and seed the idea in a way that brings millions of people together around this action.
Imagine flyering football grounds, festivals, pubs and schools, door to door leafleting. That's why we need people like you to take this idea and run with it. Make it your own and make it work for the people you know.
Join our organisers list and we’ll put you in contact with like minded people in your area!
Donate
No one gets paid to organise this, we are running this off our own backs. For us to reach millions of people we need to scale up and be prepared to be pumping out 100K, 200K, 500K leaflets to keep those of you on the ground with the outreach materials you need to build this movement.
For example, £4K gets us 500K leaflets. We also need stickers, posters and postage. This will help us reduce the price and send out bulk loads for festivals, football matches and protests.
Please consider donating by visiting our Open Collective page
Day of Action on Winter Deaths - Warm Up locations
On January 19th, the Office for National Statistics will announce the number of excess winter deaths last year. Don't Pay, Fuel Poverty Action and other groups are taking action around this date.
No one cold this winter!
Yesterday, local Don't Pay groups across the country linked up with Fuel Poverty Action and other community campaigns to hold 'warm-up' actions — occupying a space to keep warm and protest fuel poverty.
Bristol, Brighton, London, Liverpool, Glasgow and more all saw warm-up in museums sponsored by fossil fuel profiteers, energy company headquarters, shopping centres and other locations.
Don't Pay groups kept warm and spoke to members of the public about the energy bills strike.
Can’t pay, won’t pay – we must resist and strike together
The mass non-payment of energy bills is happening now. At least 3 million people are in debt to their energy supplier and 7 million of us can’t keep up.
We must now turn this mass default into mass resistance – and strike together for a different future.
