Don't Pay UK was a grassroots direct action campaign in the United Kingdom that urge collective non-payment of energy bills.

[1][2] They planned to begin non-payment on 1 October 2022, when regulator Ofgem's price cap was set to rise, if one million individuals had signed up.

On this date, 200,000 individuals had pledged non-payment, and Prime Minister Liz Truss had set a lower price cap than projected, so the strike did not go ahead.

The UK Government's position is that price increases were unavoidable due to global factors like the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; it asserted eight million vulnerable households were to be given £1,200 of support.

[3][5] This increase was estimated by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition to leave another 2 million people unable to afford adequate heating.

[5][4] A professor at the University of Liverpool, Stuart Wilks-Heeg, commented in August 2022 that "almost everybody will be in fuel poverty" under the threshold in use: a household pays more than 10% of its income on energy.

[6] Sherelle Jacobs of The Daily Telegraph commented that middle class families and pensioners could be unable to pay increased energy bills.

[4] Around 4.5 million people on pre-payment plans were not asked to participate, nor those whose energy bills are included in their rent price, to avoid self-disconnection and eviction.

[13] Paul Mason said in the New Statesman in July 2022 that though modelled on the yellow vests protests, Don't Pay UK were "too concentrated in the big cities", so it was not clear if it would gain traction.

[7] Don't Pay UK believed that this will "bring [energy companies] to the table and force them to end this crisis".

[12] Wilks-Heeg commented that differences between poll tax resistance and energy bill non-payment include that less detailed records were kept by the government and that debts were wiped.

[24] Worsened credit scores could lead to individuals having to pay higher interest when borrowing for up to six years, according to a financial services company owner.

[15] Don't Pay UK argue that thousands of simultaneous non-payments would cause "paralysis" and a "months-long backlog".

[25] A government spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the plan was "highly irresponsible" and would "push up prices for everyone else".

[14] The think-tank New Economics Foundation said that a "ripple effect" would begin at 6,000 participants and that non-payment would force government relief, otherwise Ofgem would have to increase prices at a faster rate.

[10] An associate professor at the University of Nottingham, Hafez Abdo, commented that the boycott could have "detrimental consequences on energy companies and supply chains", leaving them unable to pay for operating costs, and cause bankruptcies and job losses.