This follows months of delay in providing equivalent payments for Northern Ireland households, which the government has blamed on the absence of a working assembly. Billpayers in the rest of the UK have been receiving direct support since October.

The one-off £600 payment will be made up of £400 under the government’s Energy Bills Support Scheme Northern Ireland (EBSS NI) and £200 from the Alternative Fuel Payment (AFP) scheme, which will go to all households in Northern Ireland irrespective of what fuel they use to heat their home.

The £200 payment was announced in November due to the proportion of homes in Northern Ireland that use heating oil. 

Home heating oil customers make up two-thirds of households in Northern Ireland - a much higher proportion than the rest of the UK.