Bassetlaw District Council is responsible for administering the Government’s Council Tax Rebate in our district and will begin to make payments totalling more than £7million throughout the month of May.
The Council Tax Rebate is a £150 payment to households in England in order to ease the rising costs of energy bills. Households in Council Tax bands A to D are eligible, which accounts for approximately 90% of households within the Bassetlaw District Council area.
In order to fulfil this payment all local authorities, including Bassetlaw, have installed new software on their systems. Bassetlaw is currently in the process of thoroughly testing this system to prevent fraudulent or duplicate payments, which a number of other Councils have experienced so far.
As part of other verification checks to ensure that the Council Tax payer for eligible households is correct, we have collected the first payment for the 2022/23 billing year to check that the bank account details we hold are correct for each household.
For those residents who pay by Direct Debit, which is approximately 70% of Bassetlaw households, the Council will aim to start processing payments of £150 by Friday 13th May 2022.
If you do not pay by Direct Debit, you will receive a letter that provides instructions on how you can claim the rebate, in addition to a unique verification code for security purposes.
You will then be asked to visit the Council’s website to provide your details and your unique verification code, in addition to confirming other security questions.
If you do not have access to the internet, you will be able to contact our Council Tax Team over the phone to provide your details. Please wait until you have received your letter and unique verification code before contacting us.
Please be aware that only one person who is liable for Council Tax on 1st April 2022 and is still resident may claim the rebate on behalf of the whole household. The Council will not contact you directly to ask for your bank details. Please be alert to scams.
David Hill, Director of Corporate Resources, said: “I’d like to thank Bassetlaw residents for their patience so far and apologise for the short delay in processing the Government’s rebate. We appreciate that this payment is very important and people are keen to receive their £150. We’d like to reassure everyone that we are doing all we can to ensure that the payments are made as quickly as possible in a safe and secure way.
“As we will be paying out more than £7 million in rebates to Bassetlaw residents, we want to ensure that this process is right first time. In order to prevent fraud or errors in payment, we are thoroughly testing the payment system to avoid some of the difficulties that other local authorities have experienced so far.
“If you already pay by Direct Debit, the payment process should be swift and straightforward and we aim to start making payments to Bassetlaw residents by the end of next week. For residents who pay by other means, or where the circumstances may be a little more complex, we will process these as quickly as possible.”
Last Updated on Tuesday, May 24, 2022