Islanders are set to be given a helping hand with the cost of living courtesy of a financial handout distributed by the Isle of Wight Council.
The local authority has been given government funding to assist those not eligible for an energy rebate under the existing main scheme, which requires councils to pay £150 to households in council tax bands A to D.
Now households in council tax bands E to H can apply for a discretionary payment of £150 to help with rising energy prices as part of a two-phase scheme.
Phase 1:
This will be delivered between 4th July 2022 and 2nd September 2022. The eligibility criteria for this phase are as follows:
- A) People liable for council tax in bands E to H properties, and in receipt of Local Council Tax Support.
If you fall under category A, you are not required to complete an application form. The team will contact you separately about your payment. You may be sent a letter asking you to complete an application with an online code. If so, you need to use the energy bills rebate portal.
- B) People liable for council tax in bands E to H properties, and in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit.
- C) People not liable for council tax, but liable for rent, and in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit.
- D) People liable for council tax in bands A to D properties, and moved into their address after 1st April 2022.
If you fall in categories B to D, you need to apply: www.iow.gov.uk/Residents/Benefits-Council-Tax-and-Business-Rates/Council-Tax-Services/Council-Tax/Energy-rebate/.
You will be required to upload evidence of your bank statement which shows your name, address, bank account and sort code details. You may also be required to upload proof of your rent if applying under category C. It is important that you upload evidence at the time of submitting your application, otherwise this could delay your application being processed and the payment being made.
Phase 2:
Details of this phase will be announced following the closure of phase 1.
Councillor Chris Jarman, Cabinet member for strategic finances, said:
“We are all aware of the financial pressures due to the combination of increasing utility costs and inflation.
“The increasing poverty that results brings with it untold and often hidden pressures on mental health, family relationships and general wellbeing.
“It is beholden upon us to offer whatever we can to alleviate these challenges and to prioritise those in the greatest of need on our Island.”
Further details of the scheme can be found at www.iow.gov.uk/Residents/Benefits-Council-Tax-and-Business-Rates/Council-Tax-Services/Council-Tax/Energy-rebate/.
So still ZERO help for anyone working for a living who has chosen not to breed like rabbits then?
Dwellings in Band A to D were in the first phase
They haven’t even paid the £150 quid out yet to everyone. A friend of mine hasn’t even received a letter yet with the code on and another returned it at the end of May and still hasn’t been paid. Despite both of them phoning the council. We must have one of, if not the most useless council in Britain.
I have paid the council tax by direct debit for 10 years, I only got the rebate a week ago after logging an official complaint online. Even then it still took them 2 weeks to pay it, and only after I threatened to withhold any further payments to them. As you say, they are useless.
Sill waiting for my rebate too. Had a letter four weeks ago to which I filled out my details online a day later. I reckon they are trying to make as much interest as possible by not paying out from the money they have received.
They’re not that clever, just utterly useless. If this was a planned exercise then they wouldn’t have paid out already to so many people who were in the wrong bands. They really are just useless.
The Isle of Wight council have not launched an energy rebate scheme they are administrating the government scheme and they are making a very bad job of that by the sounds of it. Falsely trying to take some credit, it is what one expects from this council.
My 89 year old mother still hasn’t received it!
LMFAO……….
If I was able to see into the future. Wow forget lotto number’s. All you need to do is bang out loads of kids. Don’t work. Get yourself a flat. and make out your skint.
Sounds like a plan.
Only fools and horses work.
Still haven’t got mine yet either, because they can’t pay it into my bank because of the surnames being different on the account (same as on the council tax bill though). Funny though they can send out bills and take the money from said account. This council are just useless, the online form has space for only 1 name, not 2, so sort it out, how many 100,000’s spent on a website that cannot even do that. Ridiculous. But then what do you expect for a third world council.
Exactly. They are USELESS on every level.
A Band H property would have been valued as in excess of £320,000 AS AT 01/04/1991. Cant see any applicants for that!