Thousands of people are receiving their £150 Council Tax Rebate - and what do to if you haven't got it

Preston Council announced that more than 31,000 households in the city will receive the one-off payment from today (May 13).

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Chorley and South Ribble Councils also began issuing the rebate this week – with all councils prioritising people who had already paid their Council Tax using Direct Debit.

Who is eligible?

In February, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the rebate as a way of helping households with rising energy bills.

The non-repayable rebate is available for households in England in council tax bands A to D.

The Government claim four out of five households will benefit, including around 95 per cent of rented properties.

An extra £144 million will also be given to councils to provide discretionary support to vulnerable households who may not qualify for the £150 council tax rebate.

I haven't received my payment

People who pay by Direct Debit are receiving their payments first.

Anyone who does not pay by Direct Debit will need to apply individually for the rebate to the relevant Council.

While the first batch of payments has been made, all local councils said that additional checks being done to prevent fraud are slowing down the payment process.

Preston Council:

A spokesman for Preston Council said: “Due to checks required by the Government to prevent fraud, it has only been possible to make payments where the name on the bank account details we hold match the name of the person on the council tax bill.

"Additional checks are required where names don't match, e.g. where a surname has changed but neither bank a/c or council tax details are updated. If you weren’t included in this first batch, please bear with us while we endeavour to make your payment as soon as possible.”

South Ribble and Chorley:

South Ribble and Chorley Councils both said: “While preparing to issue the rebates, some Direct Debit customers details were unable to go through as a mismatch with the bank account holder name was found.

"We are working hard to manually approve these accounts in our system as quickly as we can. As a result, some customers may see their rebate in their accounts around May 18.

"If you think you should have received your rebate on 13 May, and it has not arrived by 18 May, please contact us.”