Re: Energy bills: Rishi Sunak gives one-off repayable £200 discount to households
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 9:01 pm
Delays of up to six months as council tax rebate scheme descends into chaos
Families will have to wait for up to six months for their £150 council tax rebates after local authorities failed to prepare and missed government deadlines.
Only a fraction of councils have credited taxpayers with the handout, designed to help some 28 million pay for soaring energy bills, despite assurances that the "vast majority" would receive support this month.
Many said residents would not receive payments until late May or in some cases even September because they needed to implement new software to facilitate the payments.
Families now face a lottery on when they will receive the cash. Each authority is rolling out the handouts differently, with some waiting on systems upgrades or on outsourced firms to complete audits of taxpayer records.
Doncaster and Melton were among a limited number of English councils to have issued payments.
Others, such as Trafford, Southend-on-Sea and the City of York, will pay those who pay their council tax via direct debit by the end of the month. Hastings Council has said payments will not be made until the end of May.
Residents who do not pay via direct debit face the longest waits because they must actively claim it back. Some councils are yet to set up the portal to accept requests.
Authorities have come under fire for failing to ready the payments to coincide with the cost of living crunch, especially given that the scheme was announced at the start of February.
Danielle Boxall, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, accused councils of "unnecessary bureaucratic busywork''.
Shaun Davies of the Local Government Association, the body for councils, said councils were acting in line with Government guidance, but conceded there would be delays.
State rules allow local authorities to carry out checks and withhold the payouts until September to protect against fraud and abuse of the scheme. However, guidelines said the grants should be paid as close to April 1 as possible to provide "immediate relief".
A government spokesman said "many councils" had started issuing the rebates, and expected "the rest to begin payments shortly".