£100 Household Energy Payment: Who Gets It and When

In the Budget on 28 October 2026, Chancellor John Healey announced a £2.6 billion Household Energy Payment: “a £100 payment directly into bank accounts from January 2027 for households in England in council tax bands A-D, supporting up to 20 million households.”

It's a response to this winter's price rise. Gas prices have climbed with the conflict in the Middle East, and forecasts put the January 2027 price cap more than 25% above October's. The design copies the £150 council tax energy rebate paid in 2022, which also used council tax bands A to D as a rough proxy for smaller homes.

The Treasury is paying for it by temporarily raising the Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge from 3% to 6% between 1 January 2027 and 31 March 2028. It sits alongside the other Budget energy measures, including 0% VAT on electricity to 1 July 2027 and the plan to scrap gas standing charges.

Eligibility is about your home, not your circumstances. If your home in England is in council tax band A, B, C or D, your household should get £100. The Treasury estimates that covers about 80% of households in England, and that the payment reaches 83% of fuel-stressed households and 88% of households in the bottom three income groups.

You don't need to be on benefits, and savings or income don't matter. It doesn't matter who your energy supplier is either, or whether you're on a fixed or variable tariff.

How to check your band: it's printed on your council tax bill. If you can't find it, look your address up on GOV.UK's check your council tax band service.

Councils will pay it, starting in January 2027. Based on what the government has told MoneySavingExpert:

• You pay council tax by Direct Debit: you should get the £100 automatically from January 2027, paid into the account the Direct Debit comes from.
• You pay another way (cash, card, standing order, or you get council tax support and pay nothing): you'll need to give the council your bank details. Councils will set up a way to do this. Watch your council's website.

In 2022 some councils paid Direct Debit households within weeks and took months over the rest, so if you're not on Direct Debit, setting one up before January could get the money to you sooner. That's our inference from 2022, not an official rule.

It's one payment per household. Finer details, such as what happens if you move home or whose account it goes to in a shared house, haven't been published yet.

The £100 Household Energy Payment as announced covers England only, because council tax is devolved. The Budget says the devolved governments “will receive their share of funding through the Barnett formula, which will enable them to provide similar support.” The Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive each decide whether and how to do that.

No details were published on Budget day. We'll update this page when they are. Northern Ireland, which has no council tax, also gets funding for comparable help with electricity bills, with VAT relief there expected from April 2027.

Not on its own. The latest supplier forecasts put the January–March cap at about £2,180 a year for a typical home, up from £1,723. That's about £460 a year more, or roughly £115 extra over the three months from January to March. The £100 covers most of one quarter's rise, not the year's. Ofgem confirms the real figure on 25 November.

The other lever you control is your tariff. A fixed deal locks your unit rates before January. Octopus's 12-month fix averages about £1,948 a year for a typical home and the 18-month fix about £1,888, both a couple of hundred pounds below January's forecast. Fixing costs a little more than the cap until December, so it's a bet that the forecasts are right. Our fix or variable guide walks through it, and the savings calculator does the sums for your usage.

Every energy payment brings scam texts and emails. In 2022, fake “council tax rebate” messages asking people to click a link and enter card details were widespread. The same will happen with this one.

• Don't click links in unexpected texts or emails about the £100. Go to your council's website directly; it will end in gov.uk.
• No council needs your card's security code or PIN to pay you.
• If you get a call, hang up and ring the number on your council tax bill.
• Report scam texts by forwarding them to 7726.