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Add Cost-of-Living Payments and Energy Bills Rebate docs (#771) (#1708)
Ticks off two more entries in the #771 docs-pages todo list. Covers both 2022-23 packages in one page since both are short-lived treasury transfers with very similar mechanics: - Energy Bills Rebate (Feb 2022): £150 council tax rebate (bands A-D) plus the £200 energy bills credit (de-loaned in May 2022). - Cost-of-Living Payments: the 2022-23 and 2023-24 means-tested/pensioner/ disability strands, including the stacking behaviour the formula implements and the 2024-01-01 reset to zero. Page is documentation-only and points at the existing gov.treasury.energy_bills_rebate and gov.treasury.cost_of_living_support parameter trees.
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- Add a documentation page covering the Cost-of-Living Payments (2022-23 and 2023-24) and the 2022 Energy Bills Rebate; ticks off two more entries in the #771 docs-pages todo list.
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# Cost-of-Living Payments and Energy Bills Rebate
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In response to the 2021-23 cost-of-living crisis the UK government
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announced two distinct one-off support packages. Both are modelled in
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PolicyEngine UK under `gov.treasury.*` and feed into household net
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income via [`gov_spending`](https://github.com/PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk/blob/main/policyengine_uk/variables/gov/gov_spending.py)
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and the HBAI benefit aggregates.
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## Energy Bills Rebate (winter 2022)
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Announced by the Chancellor in February 2022 to help households with the
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spike in domestic energy prices. Two strands:
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- **£150 Council Tax Rebate** for households in Council Tax bands A–D in
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England, paid in April 2022. Equivalent payments were made by the
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devolved administrations.
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- **£200 Energy Bills Credit** delivered via energy suppliers to all
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domestic electricity customers from October 2022. Originally announced
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as a repayable loan, the repayment requirement was scrapped at the May
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2022 emergency support package.
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PolicyEngine models these via:
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- `energy_bills_rebate` (Household, YEAR) = `ebr_council_tax_rebate` +
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`ebr_energy_bills_credit`
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- Parameters at `parameters/gov/treasury/energy_bills_rebate/`:
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- `energy_bills_credit.yaml` — the £200 flat household amount
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- `council_tax_rebate/bands.yaml` — qualifying CT bands (A–D)
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- `council_tax_rebate/amount.yaml` — the £150 rebate amount
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## Cost-of-Living Payments (2022-23 and 2023-24)
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Two successive packages, both modelled through the variable
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`cost_of_living_support_payment` at `gov/treasury/cost_of_living_support/`.
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The variable returns the **sum** of three independent strands depending
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on which qualifying benefits the household receives:
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| Strand | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | Qualifying benefits |
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|--------|---------|---------|---------------------|
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| Means-tested CoL Payment | £650 (two instalments) | £900 (three instalments) | Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, income-based JSA / ESA, Income Support |
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| Pensioner CoL Payment | £300 | £300 | Winter Fuel Payment recipients |
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| Disability CoL Payment | £150 | £150 | DLA, PIP, Attendance Allowance, AFCS, IIDB, SDA, child / war disability pension |
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From 2024-01-01 the parameter values are explicitly reset to zero so the
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one-off doesn't extrapolate forward.
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### How PolicyEngine computes the payment
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For each strand `s ∈ {means_tested_households, pensioners, disabled}`:
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```
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on_s = (sum of household's reported amounts in s.qualifying_benefits) > 0
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strand_s = s.amount(period) * on_s
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```
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Total `cost_of_living_support_payment = means_test_bonus + pensioner_bonus + disabled_bonus`,
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i.e. the strands stack — a pensioner on Pension Credit who also receives PIP
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will collect all three payments. This matches the actual policy.
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## References
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- [HMT/DWP, May 2022 cost-of-living support package announcement](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-most-vulnerable-households-will-receive-1200-of-help-with-cost-of-living)
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- DWP, [Cost-of-Living Payments 2023-24 guidance](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payments-2023-to-2024) (means-tested, pensioner and disability strands).
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- HMT, [Energy Bills Support Scheme](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-energy-bills-support-scheme-explainer) and [Council Tax Energy Rebate](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-council-tax-rebate-2022-23-billing-authority-guidance).
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- House of Commons Library briefing [CBP-9501 — Cost of Living Payments and the energy crisis](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9501/).

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