General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

From the Times

More than eight million households on means-tested benefits will receive lump-sum payments worth up to £600 to help with the cost of living, Rishi Sunak is to announce.

The Times has been told that the chancellor will spend more than £6 billion on support for the poorest households to help them with soaring energy bills. The payments, which are likely to be made in two instalments, will go to everyone on means-tested benefits, including universal credit, pensions credit, housing benefit, jobseekers’ allowance and income support.

It will come on top of a £400 discount on energy bills for every household in Britain.

The combination of measures is designed to be “temporary and targeted” for what ministers see as a short-term economic crisis. They are determined not to significantly increase the size of the state.

The chancellor will scrap plans for a “rebate and clawback scheme” that would have given people a £200 discount on their energy bills from October. Energy companies would have recouped the money through higher bills over the next five years, which led to criticism that the measure was effectively a loan.