YORK residents waiting for their £150 council tax rebate have been urged not to ring up the council asking where it is as it will only slow down the process.

The rebate, for households in bands A-D, was announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in February to ease the impact of soaring energy bills.

City of York Council hopes to send out the first payments towards the end of this week.

David Walker, head of customer and exchequer services at the council, said: “There are some 55,000 direct debit ratepayers at this point in time and we’ve prepared about 48,000 to go out.

“In terms of the other element of the scheme where the customer is eligible but not a direct debit payer, we will start to make those payments in May – an online form will be there for residents to register and make that claim.” 

He added: “The message we’re trying to give to residents is that we will make sure everybody who is eligible gets paid. If you pay by direct debit, obviously you’re going to get it quickly but nobody will miss out. 

“What we ask is for everyone to be patient as we pay across April and May and not to ring in because that will slow us down.

“We will get the money to them. If somebody’s not heard by the end of May for any reason we will listen to anybody who thinks they’ve missed out.”

Executive member for finance and performance, Cllr Nigel Ayre, approved a £250,000 discretionary scheme for households that do not qualify directly for the rebate scheme at a decision session on Monday.