Hundreds of thousands still yet to receive £150 payment from council tax rebate

The council tax rebate intended to alleviate the cost of living crisis is yet to be received by hundreds of thousands of people.

Local authorities have been tasked by ministers with making the one-off payment of £150 and have had since April to transfer the funds to households in England living in council tax bands A-D.

Although local authorities do not have to officially make the payments until September, residents in some areas have reported delays in receiving the money, prompting the Government to write to councils warning them that it is "monitoring the delivery" of the funds.

MPs have argued that many cash-strapped households will have budgeted for the Treasury-funded money last month when they were hit by rising energy bills that increased, on average, by £700 per year on April 1.

Households have been hit hard by the rising cost of living (In Pictures Ltd./Corbis/Getty Images)

Councils have been instructed to pay the money "as soon as possible" after receiving more than £28 million from the Government to help administer the payments.

Swale Borough Council in Kent accidentally billed households £150 instead of paying them the money. The local authority issued a "wholehearted" apology to residents as officials had to manually administer more than 33,000 payments in batches of 200 to fix the mistake.

South Derbyshire District Council said it will make the payments in June due to waiting for a "software update".

Chelmsford City Council, which had a similar issue, has told residents it has received the "additional software" it requires but is testing it before issuing the funds.

Tory MP Sara Britcliffe branded the delays "unacceptable" and said she had written to Hyndburn Borough Council in Lancashire to accelerate the process.

People who pay their council tax via direct debit will have the payment made directly to their bank account. Those households that are eligible but don't pay by direct debit will be invited to nominate a method to receive payment.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said local authorities would be reimbursed in full for
any discretionary costs.

A spokesman said: "Many have already started paying the rebate and we fully expect the rest to do so without further delay."