Taxpayer-funded heating payments to HMRC home workers more than double

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has paid £610,000 over the past four years to cover heating bills for staff who work from home, according to figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request.

Annual payments to subsidise the utility bills of HMRC’s contractual home workers more than doubled from £95,000 in 2022 to £211,000 in 2026, as reported by The Daily Star. The Sun also carried the figures, saying the total handed out was £610,000.

The payments are available only to staff officially designated as home workers, not to those on hybrid arrangements. According to HMRC, 5,259 people – about 7% of the department’s 75,898 staff – are entitled to claim the cash, The Sun reported.

HMRC is the third-largest government department, behind the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Justice. The Daily Star suggested that, by extension, similar payments across the entire Civil Service could run into millions of pounds.

MPs criticise payments as energy bills rise

The figures have sparked criticism from Conservative MPs, who argue that taxpayers should not be footing the bill for civil servants’ heating while households struggle with energy costs.

Mike Wood, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, told The Sunday Telegraph: “It is astonishing that civil servants working from home are having their heating bills covered by hard-pressed taxpayers.”

He added: “Families have enough on their plate without having to shell out for handouts to public servants. The Government should focus on getting energy bills down for everyone.”

In a separate comment reported by The Daily Star, Wood said it was “astonishing” that such payments were being made, and blamed what he called “Labour’s net zero obsession” for soaring energy bills.

Another Conservative MP, Danny Kruger, described the payments as “grotesque waste” and linked them to the same “net zero obsession”, according to The Daily Star. William Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance also criticised the spending, the paper reported.

The wider context: remote work and energy costs

The disclosures come as household energy bills are set to rise again. The energy price cap – the maximum providers can charge per unit of energy – is expected to increase by 4% in October, according to analysts at Cornwall Insight, as reported by The Sun. In recent weeks, The Sun said it had revealed that energy bills were set to hit their highest level in three years.

The payments to HMRC staff are not new. In 2022, the FDA union, which represents more than 22,000 senior civil servants, published a study on members’ views on working from home. One of its four recommendations called for departments to give all remote or hybrid workers an allowance to help towards increased energy and utility costs, as well as the necessary equipment to be safe and effective.

Government defends the payments

An HMRC spokesman said the payments were made only to contractual home workers, not to hybrid staff, and defended them as part of the department’s employment arrangements. The Daily Star reported that the spokesman’s clarification emphasised the limited scope of the payments.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has previously argued that home working increases productivity and reduces sickness absence, a position cited by The Daily Star in its coverage.

The figures emerge amid ongoing debate about the balance between office-based and remote working in the public sector, and about who should bear the costs of working from home.

As of the latest available data, HMRC employs 75,898 staff, of whom 5,259 are contractual home workers. The total spent on heating payments for those staff over the four-year period stands at £610,000, a figure that both The Daily Star and The Sun have reported.