More than £4.5 million has been paid out to South Lakes householders eligible for help with their energy bills – but 20 per cent of people have not yet claimed.
Anyone whose home is in council tax band A to D and was the liable person for council tax on April 1 is eligible to claim the £150 rebate.
South Lakeland District Council paid the rebate directly to people who pay council tax by Direct Debit, and launched a process so those who didn’t could securely provide their bank details and be paid.
The authority said it had paid energy rebates worth more than £4.5m to 30,245 households and was continuing to work through the remaining eligible households, writing to ask for bank details before the final deadline of September 30.
Anybody who has not responded by September 23 will have their council tax accounts credited with £150.
The authority said it would never call taxpayers to ask for bank details for the rebate payments and any communication would be in a letter.
For full details on the scheme and a link to the secure form to give us your bank details, visit www.southlakeland.gov.uk/energyrebate.
Councillor Suzie Pye, South Lakeland District Council’s portfolio holder for health, wellbeing and poverty alleviation, said: “The cost of living crisis is affecting us all. The council tax energy rebate is one of the measures designed to ease the burden and I urge anybody eligible who has not done so already to take the simple step needed to receive the funds.
“All payments must be made by September 30 so there is still time to provide your bank details if you’ve had a letter from us but haven’t done so.”
If you do not have a bank account, the rebate can be directly paid into your council tax account and you can indicate this on the online form.
Please note the £150 rebate will not need to be repaid unless it has been paid in error or it comes to light that a household was not eligible for the payment due to a change in circumstances.
