Watford Borough Council has issued an update for residents who are waiting to receive a £150 payment.

The Government recently announced a council tax rebate scheme to help households with rising energy bills.

People in council tax bands A to D will receive £150 via the council to help with bills.

Thousands of residents in Watford have received their payment but the council has admitted some payments have been delayed.

There are also thousands of people who have not had the money because they have not set up direct debits with the council. The council has issued new information for those people.

If you have a direct debit with the council

As of May 10, 18,821 payments have been made to Watford residents who pay their council tax by direct debit.

There are around 1,170 residents who have yet to receive the £150.

A council spokesperson explained on Thursday (May 12): "We have some residents who were paying by direct debit who will not have received a payment yet as security checks have not been passed.

"We are working through manually and will approve the ones we are able to and another payment run will be processed tomorrow."

If you don't have direct debit

The council has also confirmed it has around 12,000 non-direct debit payers.

These people will need to make an application to receive their payment, along with the remaining direct debit payers who have not passed security checks.

The council says it is working on the application form and a link will be placed on its website, probably early next week.

Once an application has been made, the council will run security checks and process a payment when the checks have been approved.

Residents should receive their payment within 14 working days of making an application, the council added.

A council spokesperson said: "Of course, we appreciate that people are facing a cost of living crisis now and we are doing all we can to make these payments as soon as possible. The first payments have been made to those council tax payers who pay their council tax by direct debit.

"Delays have been as a result of checking that the direct debit payer for a property matches up with the person liable for council tax.

"Our systems are designed to apply any credits to council tax bills so we have had to work with our systems supplier to enable us to make cash payments out."