A city region area is one of just 20 places around the country where council tax payers are yet to start receiving their £150 rebate.
Halton Borough Council revealed at the start of the month that residents won’t begin to receive the money until May.
This is later than most areas where cash began flowing into direct debit bill payers’ accounts in April.
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Rebates are being paid as part of a Government scheme intended to ease the burden of spiralling fuel costs amid a wider cost of living crisis.
The Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday that calls to local authorities around the country showed that Halton was one of only 20 areas yet to start paying the rebates, which are available to bill payers in homes under council tax bands A to D, with some in bands E to H eligible under a discretionary scheme.
Direct debit accounts will receive the rebate first, while other payers will be contacted later with information on how to receive the money.
Halton Council told the ECHO the borough’s payments are behind other areas because of “software changes” needed to process the one-off £150 transfers, but added there were further practical reasons why waiting makes sense.
The borough spans the towns of Widnes and Runcorn and neighbouring villages including Hale and Daresbury.
A council spokesman said: “£150 energy rebate payments will only be made with effect from May 2022.
“This is due to software changes that are required to facilitate the payments, as well as annual billing and year end processes..
“It was not possible to install and test the new processes to enable payment to be made in April.
“Additionally, the Government’s own advice recommends waiting until after the first council tax instalment of the new financial year has been collected by direct debit as a measure to reduce fraud and erroneous payments.
“The qualifying date is the end of the day on April 1, 2022.
“Thus, in order to allow residents time to notify us of a change of address which may have recently occurred, and for our systems to be updated to reflect any changes, it is prudent to wait a few weeks.
“This will reduce the amount of erroneous payments made and the need to recover them at a later date.”
The Mirror said the other areas lagging behind are: South Derbyshire District Council, Hastings Borough Council, North Tyneside Council, South Lakeland District Council, Colchester Borough Council, Derby City Council, Northumberland County Council, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, Havering London Borough Council, Test Valley Borough Council, Charnwood Borough Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Sevenoaks District Council, Reading Borough Council, Luton Borough Council, Tamworth Borough Council, Dacorum Borough Council, and North Northamptonshire Council.
