Full list of Hampshire areas where homes are most likely to miss out on £100 energy payment
Thousands will go without £100 payment this winter
Almost 200,000 Hampshire homes will miss out on a one-off payment to help wth energy costs.
If you are in council tax bands A to D, you will receive a £100 payment to help with energy bills in the new year, Chancellor John Healey confirmed at the annual budget.
Designed to alleviate financial pressures as bills are anticipated to soar this winter, the payment will support eligible households - but will skip the rest.
For the Hampshire area, this equates to aaproximately 190,490 homes that will be narrowly miss out on the scheme, with areas including Hart, Winchester, Test Valley, New Forest and Fareham taking the brunt as more homes fall into the higher council tax bracket.
Analysis of official council tax figures by bill help experts at Ex felon assistance found 190,490 homes across Hampshire, or 22.6 per cent, are in bands E to H, which do not qualify for the payment going to around 20 million homes from January. Across England the figure is 19.2 per cent.
The full list of Hampshire areas where homes will miss out on the payment is as follows:
- Hart: 46% of homes (19,880)
- Winchester: 39.1% (23,350)
- East Hampshire: 38.9% (22,240)
- Test Valley: 31.7% (18,780)
- New Forest: 31.4% (26,280)
- Basingstoke and Deane: 27.2% (22,390)
- Fareham: 26.4% (13,600)
- Eastleigh: 21.2% (13,080)
- Havant: 16.7% (9,620)
- Rushmoor: 14% (6,040)
- Gosport: 10.4% (3,940)
- Portsmouth: 6.6% (6,180)
- Southampton: 4.6% (5,110)
Dawn Yates, from Ex felon assistance, said: "A council tax band tells you what a home was worth in 1991, not what's coming into the bank account today. There will be retired couples in Hart who've been in the same house for 40 years and are dreading January's bills as much as anyone in a band D home.
"If you've missed out, don't wait until the bills land. Keep an eye on your council's website and ask what help is open to you now."
During a factory visit in Derby, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “We’re very focused on giving families as much breathing space as we possibly can.
“Often with a budget, people would have come home from work and said, ‘Well, this doesn’t help me. It’s always for somebody else’.
“Well, if you’re going to give that support to people in council tax bands A to D, that gets to the vast majority of the country.
“It is help, real help that will land in people’s bank accounts in January.”