Civil servants working from home at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have received £610,000 in payments to cover their heating bills over the past four years, new figures reveal. The subsidies, which help pay the energy bills of contractual home workers, more than doubled from £95,000 in 2022 to £211,000 in 2026.
Payments more than double since 2022
Figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request show that over the past four years, more than £610,000 has been spent paying a portion of the department's working-from-home staff's energy bills. HMRC is only the third largest Government department, behind the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Justice, suggesting heating bill payouts across the Civil Service will have run into millions.
The payments are for staff who are contractual home workers. There are 5,259 HMRC staff officially designated as home workers, which is 7% of the 75,898 civil servants in the department. It is the first time evidence has emerged showing home-working civil servants are getting such payments.
Criticism from MPs and campaigners
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: “It is astonishing that civil servants working from home are having their heating bills covered by hard-pressed taxpayers. With energy bills soaring thanks to Labour's net zero obsession, hard-working 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.”
Danny Kruger, the head of Reform UK's preparing for government department, said: “This grotesque waste of taxpayer money will be a tough pill to swallow for hard-working Brits forced to pay sky-high energy bills every single month. While ordinary families struggle with the cost of living, Whitehall mandarins use public cash to subsidise the bills they drove through the roof with their dogmatic net zero obsession.”
Union recommendations and government defence
In 2022, the FDA union, which represents more than 22,000 senior officials, published a study on civil servants' views on working from home. One of its four recommendations said: “Departments and government give all employees who work remotely or in a hybrid model an allowance to help towards increased energy and utility costs, as well as the necessary equipment to be safe and effective.”
Last week Housing Secretary Angela Rayner claimed civil servants could be more productive working from home and dismissed concerns about the effect on both Whitehall and the wider economy. She said: “If you look at some of the studies where people have done home working within their department, sickness levels have gone down, productivity has gone up.”
William Yarwood, campaigns director of the TaxPayers' Alliance watchdog, said: “Taxpayers will be baffled that HMRC staff are getting help with heating bills while millions cover their own. Civil servants already enjoy generous pay, pensions and flexible working, so subsidising their utilities adds insult to injury.”
A HMRC spokesman said: “These payments only apply to about 7% of our workforce who are contractual homeworkers whose designated workplace is their home. They are not available to staff working under HMRC's hybrid working arrangements.”
