Don't Pay
- We demand a reduction in energy bills to an affordable level.
- We will withhold payment together if we are ignored.
- We will take this action when we reach 1 million pledges to strike.
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
We'll only strike if we hit 1 million pledges. Here's what you need to know about joining.
FAQs
Who is Don’t Pay? Won't they just cut off my gas and electricity? Do have to say I won't pay now?
The Plan:
It's simple: we are demanding a reduction of energy bills to an affordable level. Our leverage is that we will gather a million people to pledge not to pay if the government doesn't step in to make sure no one goes cold or hungry this winter.
Mass non-payment is not a new idea, it happened in the UK in the late 80s and 90s, when more than 17 million people refused to pay the Poll Tax – helping bring down the government and reversing its harshest measures.
Even if a fraction of those of us 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. Here’s how we think we can get there:
Build support.
For this to work, we are aiming for a million people to join in. It's a big number but so is this crisis.
Right now, we’re setting up email lists and on Telegram, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter to start telling people about this.
We’re organising Zoom calls, in person meet-ups and talking to our friends and neighbours, printing flyers and stickers and bringing people together.
We'll need people, organisations and community groups to do all of this too, building this up street by street, estate by estate and city by city.
The first step is to get thousands of people like you to say you support the strike, you can do this by signing up below and joining all our social channels. If you support the payment strike, signup below.
Gather a million pledges.
We’re clear about this from the start: We only do this if we get a critical mass of people pledging to cancel their bills.
That’s how many we need to show serious power to the energy companies and government who are taking us for a ride.
One million sounds like a lot, but millions more will already be thinking about whether they’ll be able to pay come winter and afford the other things they need to survive for them and their families.
Even more of us will be angry about paying more than double what we used to pay for the same amount we use. Let alone food, petrol and mortages.
Cancel our direct debits if the price hike goes ahead.
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.
We need help
It's all of us organising for the strike that will make this happen.
A million people is a lot, but 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 leafletting. 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 organiser list and we will 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 below.
Bills are rising, and so are we
From Aberdeen to Exeter more than 20 Don’t Pay local groups took to the streets today for a Day of Action, burning our bills in protest as energy prices rose once again.
Today’s Don't Pay National Day of Action marks the beginning of a new phase for our grassroots campaign.
We strike when there are 1 million of us
On our own we’re isolated but, together with a million others, we’re unstoppable.
We've now proven the strength of the Don’t Pay campaign. After 180,000 of us pledged to strike, the government was forced to reduce the catastrophic energy price hike scheduled for 1st October. The threat of all of us saying we won’t pay left the government with no other option.
This is why we’ll keep going and strike when we hit 1 million pledges.
1 October Day of Action - find your nearest event
Everyone can help make this Day of Action a powerful moment in our campaign – it's about being visible in the communities we live in.
Find out about your local Don't Pay event, get out on the streets and tell the government we won't pay for their profits!
