# Labour’s ‘absurd’ energy bill scheme to give £350m to the richest households

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/labours-absurd-energy-bill-scheme-to-give-350m-to-the-richest-households/
- Published: 2026-11-08T08:28:56+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-08T09:24:39+00:00
- Original publisher: The Independent (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/household-energy-payment-council-tax-band-labour-100-b3078302.html
- Topics: Politics

## Key points

- A £100 energy payment will reach over 20 million households.
- The richest fifth will receive £350m of the funding.
- Nearly 700,000 of the poorest households will miss out.

## Summary

Labour’s £100 Household Energy Payment will also go to millions of high-income households, while hundreds of thousands of the poorest will receive nothing, according to new analysis. The findings raise questions about whether the £2.5bn scheme is directing support to those most affected by energy costs.

More than 20 million households in council tax bands A to D are due to receive the rebate from January. The Resolution Foundation estimates that the richest fifth will receive £350m, or 14 per cent of the funding, while just under 700,000 households in the poorest fifth will miss out; across the bottom half of earners, the figure is about 1.4 million. Critics say council tax bands, based on old property valuations, make the scheme poorly targeted, while the government says this approach is the quickest way to reach households and is expected to cover 88 per cent of low-income households.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.