Council Tax Checker Crashes as Chancellor Unveils Energy Payment

The Government’s council tax checker website crashed this afternoon, just minutes after Chancellor John Healey announced that 20 million households could receive £100 off their energy bills this winter.

During his first Budget, the Chancellor unveiled the one-off payment for every household in council tax bands A to D.

The support package is intended to help households cope with rising energy costs linked to the war in the Middle East. People rushed to the Government website to find out whether they qualified for the payment.

The surge in traffic appeared to overwhelm the site, which stopped working within minutes of the announcement.

After users entered a property postcode, an error message appeared stating: “Sorry, there is a problem with the service. Try again later.”

By mid-afternoon, a notice had been added to the webpage warning: “The service is currently experiencing high demand. It remains available, but you may experience slower response times than usual. Thank you for your patience.”

The £100 payment will cost the Treasury £2.6 billion in total and has been described as Mr Healey’s “rabbit from the hat” — a phrase traditionally used when Chancellors unveil an unexpected measure of good news in a Budget.

Mr Healey said the money would be paid directly into people’s bank accounts as part of a wider package designed to ease pressure from energy bills.

He also told the Commons that the devolved nations would receive “their share” of the funding.

One of the Chancellor’s central aims for the Budget was to give struggling families some “breathing space”, he said.

Mr Healey told the Commons: “The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments will receive their share of this funding.

“I call on them to do the same, and give people in all nations of the UK breathing space on their energy bills this winter.”

The Chancellor said the UK was being hit by a global economic storm, after the Budget watchdog sharply downgraded its forecast for gross domestic product growth next year.

The public finances have also come under severe pressure. Mr Healey said borrowing costs had surged and the UK would spend £14 billion more on debt interest this year.

He told MPs: “Those are the storms we face. We can’t wish them away. We must choose the course we steer through them.”

To provide the “breathing space” promised to households and high street businesses, Mr Healey increased taxes on banks and gambling companies.

He said the Office for Budget Responsibility had identified the war in the Middle East as the main factor driving its economic forecasts.

However, the Chancellor pledged to “steer us through the global economic storms today, to chart a new course for Britain in the years ahead, to give people fresh hope for Britain’s future”.

The support will reach 80 per cent of households in England, 83% of fuel-stressed households, and 88 per cent of those in the bottom three income deciles, the Government estimates.

Recipients can spend the cash landing in their bank account from January as they wish.

He also announced from the dispatch box the stripping of VAT from electricity bills would be extended until July 2027.

Earlier this morning, the government said it would overhaul standing charges on gas bills – a fixed charge paid by everyone – to be replaced with charges per unit used.

Consumer finance expert Martin Lewis, who had long campaigned for the measure, was invited into Number 11 Downing Street as the news broke.

However, the £108-a-year levies will not be removed until at least next year – and many bigger families will end up being worse off, as the costs will be moved on to unit costs for gas.

Mr Healey also signalled a longer-term move to strip green levies from energy bills and de-link the gas and electricity markets. 

A scheduled fuel duty hike has been dropped to ease the suffering for motorists, with a freeze extended until at least July 2027.

The moves will be partly funded by a temporary rise in the bank surcharge, currently levied at 3 per cent on top of the 25 per cent corporation tax rate. It will rise to 6 per cent for 15 months from January.

Mr Healey has also set aside £5.5billion to uprate benefits paid to 10million people by 3.5 per cent, in line with inflation.

He said two long-awaited welfare reviews will report next month, after reforms were kicked off until later in the Parliament. The bill will be brought down in a ‘Labour way’, he said, after Mr Burnham dismissed ‘crude cuts’.

Mr Healey said: ‘Fiscal discipline is my first commitment as Chancellor. More than ever, it underwrites every promise this Government makes to the British people.

‘In the Budget today, I meet the fiscal rules – the stability rule, the day-to-day spending must be covered by tax receipts. And the investment rule, that Government debt, defined as public sector net financial liabilities, must be falling as a percentage of GDP.

‘This year, for the first time, I must meet these rules in the third year of the forecast, and I do.’

Elsewhere in today’s Budget, Mr Healey announced business rates relief for 70,000 small firms by increasing the threshold from £12,000 to £18,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.

For larger retail and hospitality firms, he announced a freeze on rates in real terms, ‘so that none face an above-inflation rise for two years.’ Vape shops and adult gaming centres will be exempt.

And Healey confirmed all business rates will be retained locally by the end of the decade, with 20 per cent of revenue going to mayors from next year.

In an additional boost for small brewers, he also unveiled a £10million package of alcohol duty relief – although alcohol duty is set to rise in line with RPI inflation.

And he pledged to fill a £4.7billion gap in the Defence Investment Plan.

He said he is ‘getting work under way’ to reach spending of 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 and will set out how he will hit that target at next year’s spending review.

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