Not all St Albans council tax payers will have received their one-off rebate, the Herts Ad can reveal.

As part of its targeted response to rising energy bills, earlier this year the government introduced a £150 council tax rebate. This will mean that council tax costs will not rise for the majority of people, including those on the lowest incomes.

The rebate will provide a payment of £150 to households living in council tax Bands A to D.

The rebate will be provided as a separate payment from April 2022 rather than as part of your council tax bill, and will not need to be paid back.

But although the majority of payments have been made to St Albans district households over the last few months, SADC has yet to complete the roll-out in full.

An SADC spokesperson revealed: "We have around 18,200 eligible households in Band A to D properties who were paying their council tax by direct debit prior to April 1 2022 and we have already paid 17,600 of these households, so over 95 per cent of them. The majority of direct debit cases which haven’t been paid will be where the Council Tax is being paid by a third party and we are writing to these households so they can confirm who should receive the payment.

"For customers who set up a direct debit after April 1 we are carrying out additional checks in order to prevent fraud. These checks mean it will take slightly longer to pay these households but we are already making payments to these applicants, and also those people who pay their Council Tax by other methods, and more of these households will receive payment over the next two to three weeks.

"Any households who believe they are entitled and who have yet to receive payment or a letter from us inviting them to apply for the payment should contact the council so we can investigate further."