How to check your council band and find out if you will get Labour's £100 payment for energy bills

Chancellor John Healey is dishing out £100 to households in council tax bands A to D in England which will land straight into their bank accounts to help with energy bills this winter. Some people in England living in homes above council tax band D may get a payment towards their energy bills as well, but only if they are deemed to be 'acutely impacted' by higher energy bills. Similar funding for other nations will also be provided, meaning some households in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can benefit from the payments too. After Healey made this announcement, the Government's free online council tax band checker tool temporarily crashed.Healey said 20million households in England will benefit from the £2.6billion Household Energy Payment scheme this winter. To help fund the £100 payments to millions of households, the tax surcharge on banks' profits will be temporarily increased from 3 per cent to 6 per cent from January 1, 2027 until March 31, 2028. In light of Healey's £100 payment announcement, it is important to know how to figure out what council tax band you are in and what to do if you think you are in the wrong council tax band. Payment: Apart from limited exceptions, only households in council tax bands A to D will get the £100 help with energy billsHow do council tax bands work?Each residential property in England, Scotland and Wales is assigned a council tax band. There are eight council tax bands, starting from A all the way up to H. A is the cheapest council tax band while H is the most expensive. The council tax band you are in determines how much council tax you pay each month. Precisely how much council tax you pay will depend on where you live, as local councils decide the amount of council tax charged within each band. How do you find out which council tax band you are in?The Government has a free online tool which shows you what council tax band you are in. You need to type in your postcode in the online tool to be able to find out what council tax band you are in. The online tool will also show you what council tax band your neighbours are in. In Scotland, households can go to the Scottish Assessors Association website to check what council tax band they are in. You can also just check your council tax bills to see what band your home is in – especially if the Government website continues to crash through a surge of interest.Why are many people's council tax bands wrong? Some people's current council tax band will not be correct. This is because council tax bands were based on rushed property valuations completed in 1991. The bands have not been reviewed since 1991, except in Scotland where they were all reviewed and updated in 2005. In April, Scott Dixon, of The Complaints Resolver, said: 'An estimated 400,000 households in the UK may be in the wrong council tax band.' Many people will be paying too much council tax, while others might be missing out on discounts for single occupation or exemptions for disability or student status. In some cases, well-to-do homeowners in areas that have been transformed by gentrification since 1991 are paying far less proportionally than those in far smaller homes in less glamorous neighbourhoods elsewhere. Struggling: The Government's free online council tax band checker faltered this afternoonHow to challenge your council tax band The key tell-tale sign is if your council tax band is out of kilter with other properties of a similar size near where you live.You should start by finding out what council tax band your neighbours’ homes are in to check if yours seems correct. You will want to make sure the homes you are comparing yours with sit on a similar amount of land, have a similar floor area and roughly the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms.If you want to challenge your council tax band, you need to decide whether you want to do it informally or formally. You can start a formal review if you have been paying council tax on your home for less than six months, or if the Government's Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has altered your band in the last six months and you disagree with it. In these cases, the VOA is legally obliged to review your band.You may not be able to launch a formal appeal if you have lived in the home for too long.Most people lodge an informal review, which means you will need strong supporting evidence to show that your council tax band is wrong. If you fail to provide adequate evidence, the VOA will reject the request. If you decide to challenge your current council tax band, there is a chance you could be moved up a council tax band and have to pay even more council tax. This only happens in a small number of cases.Also avoid challenging your council tax band if you think you could be affected by Labour's upcoming 'mansion tax', affecting homes valued at £2million or more from April 2028. The Government is looking at properties in the three highest bands of F, G and H to see if they are valued above £2million. Is the decision to restrict the £100 payment to four council tax bands fair? The Chancellor's decision to restrict the £100 Household Energy Payment to homes in council tax bands A to D has not been universally applauded. Some view it as a blunt instrument which could leave vulnerable people out in the cold. Someone living in a council tax band F home who is terminally ill, on a low income and needing to use their heating more will, unless their local council decides otherwise, not get the £100 payment.Nouran Moustafa, practice principal at Roxton Wealth, told This is Money via Newspage: 'Since when did your council tax band become a reliable measure of how much money you have?'Someone living in a Band E property could be a pensioner on a modest income, while someone in Band D could be earning six figures.'I understand why the Government wants a simple way to distribute £100 energy payments, but simple doesn't automatically mean fair.'We're confusing property valuations with financial circumstances, and those are two very different things.' She added: 'A household's ability to pay its energy bills shouldn't be judged by a property valuation from 35 years ago.'Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, said: 'The payment is aimed at those with lower-value properties to try and help those who may be more in need, which seems fair at a time when budgets are tight. 'However, it doesn’t always follow that this will be case - will it apply to a second or holiday home, or only for owner-occupiers? What about tenants? Will they get the benefit?'Given that council tax is based on some very old property valuations, surely this is another argument for root-and-branch reform of the system.'Protect Your Money – sign-up to our six-week plan The Burnham Budget is here... but what does it mean for YOU? 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