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Hi,

Energy Pre-Payment Scandal

In the last 12 months there has been an astronomic rise in energy bills and a corresponding massive rise in profits in the energy industry. BP and Shell alone have made £15 billion profit in just 3 months from July to September this year while 2 million are already unable to afford to heat their home and 7 million more are struggling to pay their bills.

To challenge this outrage Don’t Pay UK are organising a campaign of mass civil disobedience via collective non-payment of energy bills. We have three demands:

  1. Reverse the energy price cap to its pre-April 2021 level
  2. End all enforcement of pre-payment meters
  3. No-one cold this winter - an emergency social energy tariff to prevent people dying from cold this winter.

It is now being reported that as the energy debt crisis grows energy companies are breaching their legal obligations and are remotely switching Smart Meters to pre-pay functionality to collect debt leaving hundreds of vulnerable families without power or heat. The article below explains the growth in this shady and unacceptable practise.

https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/11/24/households-remotely-switched-to-prepay-meters/

There are now 29 million Smart meters installed in the UK which means over half your constituents are now at risk of being remotely switched to pre-payment if they fall into debt. We believe this practise is barbaric and should be outlawed in any civilised society. On behalf of the millions of people who are supporting our campaign and your constituents we urge you to raise the matter in your party and in parliament and demand the government immediately bans the switching of any Smart Meters to pre-pay functionality without the express consent of the bill payer, irrespective of whether or not they are in debt.

For the same reason we would urge you to demand that the enforcement of traditional pre-pay meters is also outlawed - no-one should be in the position where they run out of heat or power simply because they are unable to top-up their meter.

We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Regards.

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