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Some council tax payers in the district are still waiting for their £150 energy rebate five months after the payments were announced – but a senior Calderdale councillor says the fault is with the Government.

Calderdale Council Cabinet member Coun Silvia Dacre said the process had just been left to councils to sort out and the process had been very complicated to undertake.

Councillor Regan Dickenson (Con, Rastrick) said he had heard some residents had not received their energy rebate because they did not have direct debit, and often these were the people who needed the money most.

He asked if Cabinet would consider failure to deliver the rebate five months on a failure of service and if it would undertake to ensure that all who had not yet received their rebate get it in time for Christmas.

Calderdale Council's Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Dacre (Lab, Todmorden),

But Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Dacre (Lab, Todmorden), said she did not accept it is a failure of the council and processing payments had been an enormous burden on local authorities, it was complicated.

“Failure lies with Government offloading responsibility to local authorities instead of doing it themselves.

“The Government thought it would be straightforward and it certainly hasn’t been,” she said.

The Government had put deadlines in place for the payment of the rebates.

Even where the council had direct debit details from residents who paid their Council Tax that way there were some instances where bank account details did not tally with the Council Tax payer.

These all had to be properly checked before payments could be made, which took a lot of time, councillors were told.

In terms of people not using direct debit, the council had to send out application forms and some people had still not returned them.

The council was left with the default position of having to credit Council Taxpayers’ accounts with money, and this also had complications.

“I am truly sorry for people who have suffered a delay but don’t accept in any way it is the responsibility of this authority.

“It is trying its best to get it out as quickly as we can,” added Coun Dacre.

Councillor Regan asked his question at a full Calderdale Council meeting.

Calderdale council tax payers still waiting for energy rebates - but the Government is to blame, says councillor