Truss may stop high earners getting £400 energy bill payments, ally hints

theguardian.com:

One of Liz Truss’s key ministerial allies has hinted she might stop wealthy people receiving the £400 energy bills payout coming from the Treasury later this year.

The chief secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, said he found it “pretty odd” that high earners would benefit from the payments, which were announced in May by Rishi Sunak, the then chancellor, as part of a £15bn energy support package.

Clarke was speaking in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in his capacity as an advocate for the Truss campaign, which over the past week has been revising its stance on energy bills and seeking to quash suggestions that Truss is opposed to offering those most in need targeted support.

Clarke was Sunak’s deputy in May when the Treasury announced that from October every household would get the £400 payments, mostly paid in instalments as rebates on energy bills. This was the universal element in a package that diverted most of the extra £15bn available to payments for those most in need.

In his interview, Clarke said: “I do find it pretty odd that high earners are receiving £400 off their bills. As Conservatives, we ought to surely believe in targeting taxpayer money as best we can so that we actually achieve the best value and keep the burden on the exchequer as low as we can.

“It is not an ideal outcome, putting it very mildly, that people who don’t need it are receiving quite substantial sums of money from the state. That is not, frankly, a targeted package, is it?”

Sign up to First Edition

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

At the start of the Tory leadership campaign, Truss suggested the main measures she would implement as prime minister that might help