Thousands wait for £150 rebate

Thousands of households in South Holland are yet to receive the £150 council tax rebate from the government, it’s been revealed.

But those who haven’t received the payment aimed at helping with the current cost of living, will have the money taken off their council tax bill next year, a council meeting has heard.

As previously reported, The Voice has received a number of calls from residents who do not pay their bill via direct debit, and therefore didn’t automatically get the pay-out.

A meeting of South Holland District Council’s Performance Monitoring Panel. Members heard a letter had gone out to 11,500 households saying the money, to say it would be taken off their bill.

The district council later clarified that the number relates to all households in the South and East Lincolnshire Local Partnership which also includes Boston Borough and East Lindsey councils.

A spokesman said there were 3,388 in South Holland who had nor received nor claimed their payment.

Amie Housham, the head of customer contact for call centre Public Sector Partnership Services (PSPS), the company South Holland set-up and is now jointly owned by the other councils in the partnership, told the meeting: “While the £150 scheme has been completed there are 11,500 letters going out to houses advising their £150 that’s not been claimed will be reduced on their council tax bill.”

After the meeting, a spokesman for South Holland District Council said the 11,500 figure is across all three councils. It’s not clear how many are in each area.

The authority saw a huge spike in calls from residents as a result of queries about the payments. The surge resulted in it not meeting targets on answering calls.

PSPS’s performance has also been scrutinised by councillors after missing targets.

Ms Housham continued: “The service is resourced to respond to planned initiatives and throughout this year there have been a number of additional pressures in responses to support schemes and the £150 rebate, the latter creating over 35,000 additional calls of which 12,500 were from South Holland alone.”

The meeting heard that the authority is due to move on to a new phone system on Monday and that improvements in performance had already been seen.