Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department’s guidance on the Council Tax Energy Rebate which states that councils can choose whether to offer £150 credit to an eligible household’s council tax account as a payment option, whether a local authority can use that £150 payment to reduce the arrears of a council taxpayer.

Taxpayers can choose to accept the rebate as a credit on their Council Tax account in order to reduce Council Tax arrears. However, rebate payments should only be made as council tax credits in circumstances where the tax payer has elected to receive a credit rather than a BACS or voucher payment or where an application has not been made or a voucher has not been cashed after a reasonable period of time has elapsed.