Explained: Who will receive £150 as part of Council Tax (Energy) Rebate Discretionary Scheme

Peterborough City Council has confirmed who will be eligible for an extra £150 to help pay energy bills.

What the funding is:

The government has provided a limited amount of £429,000 funding for a discretionary scheme to enable the Council to provide support to other energy bill payers who are not eligible under the terms of the mandatory scheme, or to provide carefully targeted ‘top-up’ payments to the most vulnerable households in council tax bands A to D.

Households in Bands A-D have already received £150.

Who is eligible

The funding will be available for:

Households in council tax bands E toH who meet at least one of the following criteria on 1st April:

They are in receipt of working age Local Council Tax Reduction.

· in exempt class N (A property that is occupied only by students or a student's non-student spouse or dependant, who is not a British Citizen and is prevented by the terms of their entry visa to the U.K. from taking employment or claiming benefits.) , S (A property in which all the occupiers are under 18 years of age.), U (A property in which the only occupiers are severely mentally impaired persons who would otherwise be liable to pay the Council Tax.) or W (A dwelling which is part of a single property containing at least one other dwelling (e.g. a granny annexe) and is the main home of a dependant relative of a person resident in that other dwelling.”

· in receipt of a disabled person’s band reduction

Households in properties on 1st April that are classified as Housing in Multiple Occupation where the property owner is liable for the council tax, but the occupiers are liable for the energy bill. Only one payment will be made per property.Households on 1st April in bands E-H that can demonstrate exceptional financial hardship and in receipt of one of the following:

A means tested benefit or council tax support (eg Universal Credit, Pension Credit)

A disability benefit (Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment or Attendance Allowance).

In addition, discretionary Top Up payments will be made in the following circumstance.

Households in receipt of working age Local Council Tax Reduction on 1 April 2022 who have already received a payment under the mandatory scheme or are eligible under section A.

Options that were ruled out

The council considered and ruled out a range of other options

One option ruled ou was to extend support to all occupiers of band E-H properties. There are in excess of 7,700 such properties in Peterborough, meaning the maximum support available would be £55 per household.

Another was to provide additional support to single person households, as energy costs are potentially a disproportionately higher percentage of their overall household income. There are in excess of 28,000 such households in Peterborough, so the council said that any individual award would be too low to be meaningful.

Awarding support to landlords of HMOs was considered, but this is not in line with the government guidance for where this support should be targeted.

For more information, visit https://democracy.peterborough.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=1980