£100 off, 20 million homes, and the letter on your council tax bill
What happened
On 29 October 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a letter to councils setting out a new scheme called the Household Energy Payment. It is a one-off payment of £100 per household for this financial year. It is aimed at households in England in council tax bands A to D, for properties lived in as a sole or main residence. The payment will be delivered through the council tax system. Councils are expected to start making payments from January 2027, and the government will fund them in advance, with a reconciliation afterwards to make sure the sums match. The government expects the payment to reach over 20 million households in England this winter. There is a second part. A £100 million discretionary fund will let councils support households hit hardest by rising energy costs. Some of those households may be in council tax bands above D, so the fund is a route to help people the main scheme would otherwise miss. The letter, dated 28 October and published 29 October, is deliberately described as initial information. The detailed guidance covering exact eligibility rules, payment arrangements and how the discretionary fund works has not been published yet. The government says it will follow shortly.
Why this matters
Council tax bands are a rough measure of property value from 1991, not a measure of income. Using them to decide who gets help is fast, because councils already hold the data, but it is blunt. That cuts both ways. Some people in bands A to D are comfortably off. Some people in band E or F are not. The £100 million discretionary fund exists precisely because the government knows the main rule will miss people. For most households, £100 is useful rather than transformative. Set against a typical annual energy bill it is a dent, not a solution. But it arrives in January, which is when bills land hardest and when people are most likely to be rationing heating. There is a genuine health angle here, and it is not a marketing line. Cold homes are associated with worse outcomes for people with heart and lung conditions, with arthritis and with poor mental health. Cold also contributes to falls among older people, partly through stiffness and partly because people move around less. Winter deaths in England rise every year, and cold housing is part of that picture. So a payment arriving in January, targeted at lower-value homes, is aimed at roughly the right moment and roughly the right group, even if the targeting is imprecise.
What the evidence actually says
It is worth being clear about how much is still unknown, because this is the stage at which misinformation tends to appear. What is confirmed: £100 per household, bands A to D, England only, delivered through council tax, payments beginning from January 2027, a £100 million discretionary fund, and an expectation of reaching over 20 million households. What is not yet confirmed: the exact eligibility criteria, how payments will physically be made to each household, what happens in edge cases such as houses in multiple occupation or recently moved households, how councils will decide discretionary awards, and the detail of how councils are compensated for the administrative work. The letter itself says the detailed guidance will cover these points. That gap matters for one practical reason above all others. Whenever a government payment is announced and the mechanism is not yet public, scams follow. There will be texts and emails claiming to be from your council, asking you to 'claim your £100 energy payment' via a link, and asking for bank details. Treat every one of those as fraudulent until proven otherwise. Councils already have the council tax records for the households this scheme targets, which is exactly why this route was chosen. A scheme designed around data the council already holds is unlikely to require you to submit your bank details through a link in a text message. If in doubt, go to your own council's website directly by typing the address, or ring the number on a council tax bill you already have.
Qurexa perspective
A lot of the people we deliver to are exactly the households this payment is aimed at: older people, people managing long-term conditions, people on fixed incomes in smaller homes. The thing we would add is about medicines and cold, because it comes up more than people expect. Most medicines are fine in a cool room. A few are not. Insulin and some other injectable medicines should not be allowed to freeze, and in an unheated room, a porch or an outbuilding in January, freezing is a real possibility. A medicine that has frozen may not work properly even after it thaws, and you often cannot tell by looking. If you are turning the heating down to save money and you keep medicines somewhere that gets very cold, move them. A cupboard in the warmest room is usually better than a hallway or a conservatory. The other thing worth saying: if you are choosing between heating and other essentials, tell someone. Your GP surgery, your pharmacist and your council all have routes to help, and none of them can offer it if they do not know. That is not a sales pitch. It is the single most useful thing in this article.
Practical advice
Find out your council tax band. It is on your council tax bill, and you can also look it up free on GOV.UK. If you are in band A to D in England, you should be in scope for the main payment. Do not do anything else yet. There is no application process announced. Wait for your council's own communication, which will come through official channels. Ignore and report any text, email or call asking you to claim this payment through a link. Forward suspicious texts to 7726 and suspicious emails to [email protected]. If you are in a higher band but genuinely struggling, look up your council's discretionary support once guidance is published. The £100 million fund exists for cases like yours, and discretionary funds are routinely underclaimed. While you are at it, check whether you are eligible for anything else. Pension Credit, the Warm Home Discount and the Household Support Fund are all underclaimed. Pension Credit in particular acts as a gateway to other help, and hundreds of thousands of eligible pensioners do not claim it. If you or someone in your household has a health condition or disability, ask your energy supplier to add you to the Priority Services Register. It is free, and it means extra support during power cuts and problems with supply. Keep the main living room around 18°C if you can, and keep bedrooms from getting very cold. If money is the barrier, say so to your GP surgery or council rather than simply going without.
What to know
The government has announced a one-off £100 Household Energy Payment for households in England in council tax bands A to D, to be delivered through the council tax system with payments starting from January 2027. It is expected to reach over 20 million households. A separate £100 million discretionary fund will let councils help households in acute difficulty, including some in bands above D. Detailed guidance on eligibility and payment mechanics has not been published yet. There is no application process announced, so there is nothing to claim at this stage. Expect scam messages. Councils already hold the council tax data this scheme runs on. Never give bank details in response to a text or email about this payment. While you wait, check Pension Credit, the Warm Home Discount, the Household Support Fund and your energy supplier's Priority Services Register. Those are often worth considerably more than £100 and are widely underclaimed. Sources: GOV.UK (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), 'Council tax information letter 6/2026: Household Energy Payment 2027', published 29 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-information-letter-62026-household-energy-payment-2027 ; GOV.UK, full letter text, 'Council tax information letter 6/2026: Household Energy Payment 2027', dated 28 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-information-letter-62026-household-energy-payment-2027/council-tax-information-letter-62026-household-energy-payment-2027 ; GOV.UK, 'Check your Council Tax band', https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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