Households across the Black Country have begun to receive their £150 council tax rebates to help them cope with soaring bills – but not everyone is getting the top-up at the same time. The cash, which has been given to local authorities by the Government to help families amid the cost of living crisis, has started arriving in bank accounts.
People living in council tax bands A to D are eligible for the payment, which is a non-repayable rebate and not a reduction of a council tax bill. Those who pay council tax by direct debit should get it automatically and are being encouraged not to contact their local authority, while those who don’t will have to apply.
Some people will have checked their bank balance to find a much-needed boost but there are thousands of others still waiting. To make matters more complicated, local authorities are distributing the cash at different speeds, meaning people in some areas are getting it more quickly than others.
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For example, some households have been told they may have to wait until September to receive the payment but most people in Sandwell who pay their council tax by direct debit have now got it. Almost 70,000 households in Sandwell have received the payment and anyone in the borough who hasn’t is now being told to apply.
The roll-out in other parts of the Black Country has been slower. Less than a third of rebates have been paid in Wolverhampton (31,187 out of 104,825).
A third of payments totalling almost £35,000 have also been made to households in Walsall. In Dudley, payments started being processed last Friday and council bosses said by this Friday 40,000 rebates will have reached accounts, which again is around a third of households in the borough.
It shows it’s a postcode lottery in terms of when residents can expect to get hold of the extra cash. Sandwell Council was one of the first in the country to start making payments and says everyone eligible to automatically receive the money will have it by now.
It means anyone in the borough who hasn’t received the cash and is eligible must now apply. A Sandwell Council spokesman said: “Anyone who has not yet received their payment, or who does not pay by direct debit, now needs to apply for the rebate.
“This represents around 60,000+ households in Sandwell. Letters have also been sent to all households who need to apply for the rebate.”
The £150 rebate is being given to families to ease some of the burden of soaring household costs after energy bills shot up while inflation is at a 30-year high, though critics say the Government has not done enough to help the worst off.
