1m may miss out on £150 tax help with cost of living

A MILLION households could miss out on the £150 council tax rebate to help with the cost of living, new figures reveal.

Those who do not pay council tax via direct debit risk being left ‘out in the cold’ if they fail to apply by the end of next month, ministers have been warned.

The Liberal Democrats submitted Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in the country – of the 155 that responded, there were 3,530,831 people who did not pay council tax via direct debit. Of

‘Leaves families out in the cold’

these, 1,077,378 eligible for the rebate have not applied – equating to almost one in three who pay via other methods such as cheques.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told the Mail: ‘This is a botched government scheme which leaves families and pensioners out in the cold.

‘It was clear from the start that payments were never going to reach some of those who need it most.

‘Now time is running out to save people from catastrophic energy bills. It would have been far simpler to send the money directly to people’s homes – now the only way to protect people is scrapping the energy price rise in October.

‘We have a zombie Government refusing to act even when their own half-baked programmes are proved to be unworkable.’ The Government announced the rebate in February for properties in bands A-D. Families will also receive £400 discounts on energy bills in six instalments this winter. But ministers are under pressure to go further as inflation hits a 40-year-high of 10.1 per cent.

A government spokesman said: ‘We are urging councils to make payments without further delay and have given a host of options to do this quickly and securely – including bank account transfers, council tax account credits or a voucher-based system.’