A £100 energy payment misses nearly 700,000 poor homes. Will ministers widen it?

What happened

Analysis with the Resolution Foundation found that £350m of the £100 energy payment goes to the richest fifth of households, while just under 700,000 of the poorest get nothing.

A home in council tax bands A to D in England gets £100. The UK government announced this Household Energy Payment in the Budget on 28 October. It goes to up to 20 million homes from January 2027. People who pay council tax by direct debit get the money in their bank account without asking. Councils will invite the others to apply. Council tax bands still use home values from 1991.

The bands miss some poor families and include some rich ones. On 8 November The Independent and the Resolution Foundation, a research group on living standards, found that about 3.5 million of the richest households get £350m. Just under 700,000 of the poorest households get nothing, because their homes are in higher bands. A home in band D can now be worth well over £1m.

The government says it chose the bands to pay quickly. Government sources say council tax reaches the most homes fastest this winter. On 3 November Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper told MPs the plan creates an “absurd situation” and asked for payments based on benefit and tax records. Chancellor John Healey said “Nine out of 10 of the poorest households will benefit” and pointed to a £100m fund for councils, which they can use to help homes outside the bands.

The detailed rules for councils are not out yet. On 28 October the housing ministry wrote to councils that it would publish them “shortly”. By 8 November nothing new was on GOV.UK. On 3 November a Treasury minister wrote that guidance on the fund would come “in due course”. These rules are the place where ministers could add people to the payment or the fund.

This will cover the eligibility criteria, payment arrangements, monitoring and assurance requirements, and expectations of the discretionary fund.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, letter to councils, 28 October 2026

Sources: The Independent, GOV.UK (2, 3), BBC, UK Parliament, UK Parliament

The Pattern

We looked for cases where a government gave one-off help with energy costs through a ready list, such as council tax bands, power accounts or wages, and then decided whether to change who got it before paying. We found nine such payments in 2021 and 2022. Four times the government added people before the first payment. It never took better-off homes out. Only two of the four changes came within 95 days of the announcement: France on day 35 and the UK on day 57. (BBC; GOV.UK; DW; GOV.UK)

The Read

Today is day 11 after the announcement, and 31 January is day 95. In the past, no government changed who got the money in the first 11 days. Two changes came within 95 days, in France in 2021 and in the UK in 2022. Where councils or towns paid, in England and Wales in 2022 and in the Netherlands, nobody was added or removed. In England today councils pay too, and the Chancellor has defended the bands against paying through benefit and tax records.

There are reasons for doubt. All nine payments came in one energy crisis, in 2021 and 2022, and three were decisions of the same UK government. England’s rebate and Britain’s bill discount were announced in one document. Germany added pensioners in the month its payment began, and Austria’s parliament set an income limit only after the announcement. Today a Labour government runs the plan, with a different ministry writing the rules for councils.

Sources: BBC, GOV.UK (2, 3, 4), Welsh Government, Dutch Parliament, UK Parliament, DW, Austrian Parliament