LOW income households are set to get a £150 Council Tax rebate to help with the rising cost of living, it was reported.
The cost of living has now reached a 30-year high, with families facing paying out up to £3,000 a year more for everyday essentials including food, fuel, household bills and clothing.
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Households face a planned rise on National Insurance and higher energy bills from April 1.
Soaring inflation is adding £180 a year to grocery bills and soaring crude oil prices are pushing up prices at the pumps.
In response, Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to say that people in Council Tax bands A to C will receive rebates, The Times reports.
More than 15 million households could benefit with the biggest rebates going to the poorest households.
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The cost to the Treasury is expected to cost at least £9 billion.
It comes as part of a package of measures to help squeezed Brits facing a ‘Black Thursday’ quadruple whammy of price rises which are:
- Average gas and electric bills hitting £2,000 a year as the Government’s price cap is raised.
- Mortgage payments going up as interest rates set to double from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent – the second increase in two months.
- Shoppers hit by the highest price rises in nearly a decade
- Petrol prices to rocket to record levels.
Energy watchdog Ofgem was forced to bring forward its planned price cap rise on gas and electric bills as Boris Johnson’s Government scrambles to move on from the Partygate saga.
Suppliers will be allowed to hike the basic tariff for 22 million households, meaning families are set for huge increases in bills.
Experts last night predicted capped energy tariffs will shoot up by around 50 per cent to £1,915 for the typical customer as a result of today’s announcement.
Another rise is expected in autumn when the price cap is likely to go up yet again.
BLACK THURSDAY
In addition to help with Council Tax, the chancellor, under pressure to scrap VAT on energy bills, will today announce other measures to try to ease the pain for hard-pressed families.
He will lay out a major “Rebate and Repay” scheme to give every household in the country cash back.
Ministers will underwrite billions of pounds worth of loans to energy firms to dish out to their customers — to be recouped over time.
The so-called “smoothing” mechanism will mean Brits pay less now when prices are high, but face paying back huge sums over several years.
And the winter scheme may only be extended from the end of the year, leaving months of pain for struggling households.
In a bid to stop the poorest Brits choosing between heating and eating, he is also expected to extend the Warm Homes Discount too.
