British households have been warned that refusing to pay energy bills could mean their power gets cut off.
UK households have already been struggling with the cost of soaring energy bills - but further increases are coming .
Energy bills regulated by the Ofgem price cap could rise from the current £1,971 a year to £3,359 in October, power experts at Cornwall Insight said this week.
A growing number of individuals are thinking of refusing to pay their energy bills as a form of protest.
A group called Don't Pay UK want one million households to go on a form of energy bill strike if there is no more Government help with bills by October 1.
The Don't Pay website says: "Even if a fraction of those of us who are paying by direct debit 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.
"On 1 October, 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."
However, debt charity StepChange has said not paying energy bills can mean homes get their gas and electricity disconnected.
Richard Lane at StepChange said: “If you don’t pay your gas or electricity bills, your supplier can collect the debt you owe using a debt collection agency.
“They can also get a court warrant to enter your home to fit a pre-payment card meter.”
Lane said anything you owe your energy supplier can then be added to this meter.
In the worst-case scenario energy firms can remove your meters and cut power off, but this is extremely unusual.
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has previously warned of possible energy bill strikes as households refuse to pay soaring costs.
Speaking on ITV programme Peston last month, Lewis said: "I think I can categorise it more accurately now, the big movement that I am seeing is an increase of growth in people calling for a non-payment of energy bills, mass non-payment.
"Effectively a consumer strike on energy bills and getting rid of the legitimacy of paying that. It’s small at the moment, there’s a Twitter handle with about 5,000 followers.
"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 once it starts becoming socially acceptable not to pay energy bills people will stop paying energy bills and you’re not going to cut everyone off.”
