Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 16 May 2022

HINCKLEY and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) are to start paying the £150 council tax rebate starting this week.

They will be making the payments to borough residents who pay by direct debit through the Government’s energy bill rebate scheme.

According to a Borough Council spokesperson, the stipulation of Councils having to make a payment rather than crediting tax accounts has resulted in “significant” additional work, and the Council have had to make changes to their IT systems.

But, it has been stated that they are ‘working hard’ to ensure that all payments are received ‘well within’ the Government’s deadlines.

28,000 payments to Council taxpayers are now underway – and it is expected that the majority of payments to those in Bands A to D who pay by direct debit will be received by the end of May.

However, it has been stressed that there may be some instances where the Borough Council have not been able to make a direct payment for some reasons, such as the name on the direct debit does not match with a liable person for council tax.

If an incident like this does happen, the resident will be sent a letter to collect their payment from the post office.

For anyone who has not received their payment direct into their account by the first week in June or who does do not pay by direct debit, it is safe to assume that the payment will be made through the post office.

Letters regarding residents collecting their cash from the post office will be sent within the next three weeks.

Anybody who qualifies for the rebate will be reminded – and nobody will be forgotten, so people are being asked to “bear with” the Borough Council, and are being encouraged to check their social media profiles instead of telephoning them.

The Government expect local authorities to have made payments under this scheem by September 2022.

The Borough Council spokesperson further added: “We appreciate that people are facing a cost-of-living crisis now and we are doing all we can to make these payments as soon as possible.”

Details of the discretionary scheme are soon to be published for households who need help with their energy bills, but are not eligible for this main energy rebate payment.