Martin Lewis has spoken out about the Don't Pay UK campaign urging people not to pay their energy bills on October 1. The 50-year-old financial expert addressed the movement on ITV News' Peston show on July 20 in regards to a question about civil unrest due to rising energy prices.
At the time, the Twitter campaign had about 5,000 followers but now has close to 93k followers. The Money Saving Expert referred to the potential non-pay event as essentially a consumer "strike" comparing the plans to the poll tax revolt in the 1990s.
The campaign was created in mid-June and aims to build a million pledges by the beginning of October. It claims that if the government fails to act by then, by failing to deliver affordable energy prices to all, then members will cancel their direct debits en masse.
READ MORE: Warning energy bills could hit an eye-watering £4,400 by January
Speaking to ITV's Peston back in July, Martin Lewis said: "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 of course once you get to that it's exponential the problems that start to happen.
"Once it becomes socially acceptable not to pay energy bills people will stop paying energy bills and how do you enforce it? You're not going to cut people off. This is a real dilemma."
Speaking to iNews yesterday (August 7), Lancaster solicitor Gary Rycroft said in regards to the same movement: "I think they are thinking safety in numbers but there’s no legal basis for that whatsoever."
He warned that consumers need to make an informed decision and understand the risks of being in breach of their contracts with energy suppliers who could enforce a pre-payment meter, cut off energy supply or impact consumers' credit scores negatively.
For anyone who needs advice on struggling to pay energy bills, please visit the Citizens Advice website.
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