As part of the UK government (ukG) response to sky-hi energy bills, it is introducing a payment of £400 to those with no direct connection to an energy supplier. This will be done via the Energy Bills Support Scheme – Alternative Payments (EBSS-AF).

ukG has announced this scheme today on its website - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vital-help-with-energy-bills-on-the-way-for-millions-more-homes-across-great-britain-and-northern-ireland

But it has failed so far to publish detailed guidance. All that we know is what can be gleaned from the website:

- applications will be via www.gov.uk;

- applications may be made in January 2023 (and LAs should not be contacted in the meantime);

- applications will initially be validated by ukG, the passed to LAs for further validation and payment

- around 900K will qualify across the UK;

- the following groups are likely to qualify:

i. care home residents

ii. residents of park homes

iii. tenants in certain private and social rented homes

iv. homes supplied via private wires

v. residents of caravans and houseboats on registered sites

vi. farmers living in domestic farmhouses

vii. off-grid households

We expect that some persons will contact the LA now, if you do receive any enquiries, you should direct enquirers to the www.gov.uk site. Once we have more information, we will provide further updates.

Please note that Kathryn Munro and Fiona Spendlow in Money Advice will not be back in the office until after new year. Any clients requiring a callback from either of them should be allocated to the general queue rather than them directly so other advisers can pick them up.

Please be advised that any calls for requests for payment from the Summer Support Fund, will be considered up to 12 noon on Tuesday 20 December 2022, any calls for requests for after that time, will not be processed for payment till after the festive break.

Any new criteria for entitlement to the Fund will be advised upon return from the festive break.

Details taken from Social media post on 06/12/2022 following a customer enquiry originally reported to Seniors this morning 16/12/2022:

This Christmas, holiday support will be provided to families receiving free school meals on the basis of low income. This is in addition to the final £260 bridging payment.

- Both payments (holiday and bridging) will be made directly into bank accounts on Tuesday 20 December.

- Children receiving free school meals due to universal access for P1-5 are not eligible for these payments.

- If your child currently attends primary school you will receive £25.30 per child, which is 11 days at £2.30 per week day.

- If your child currently attends secondary school you will receive £26.40 per child, which is 11 days at £2.40 per week day.

- If you've changed your bank details since you received the last support payment please contact revenues@moray.gov.uk.

- If your financial circumstances have changed recently this could make your child eligible for free school meals. Find out if you are eligible and how to apply at: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_55486.html

- If you have not already done so you can apply for the Scottish Child Payment at: https://www.mygov.scot/scottish-child-payment

Please be advised there will be 58 Council Tax warrant letters posted out tomorrow to customers. There are for a mixture of 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 debts. Payment date is 23/12/22.

Following an enquiry from Burghead Community Hall re-possible funding from MC to help with energy bills for creating a warm space. There is currently no funding available from MC for this, however, I have found and provided them with this link to the Scottish Governments Energy Bill Relief Scheme for non domestic customers.

I am working to see if this link can be added to the Cost of Living Support HUB but thought it would be helpful to have on our news pages in the meantime, Donna.

UPDATE: A link to this post is now available on the Cost of Living Support HUB within the “Business Support” tab Cost of Living Hub - Moray Council.

These pages (Cost of Living Hub - Moray Council) are being kept up to date as soon as information is received. Customers looking for information not available here should be advised to keep a regular check in the first instance. Information is also available on community group social media accounts so customers can also be directed to these which MC do not have links for. If you have anything unusual, please contact the Seniors in the 1st instance, thank you, Donna

In the event of any enquiries, please be aware that Education have taken the decision to make a payment for missed FSM on strike days.

A retrospective payment for the strike day on 24/11/2022 will be in bank accounts by 13/12/2022. This payment is only for those who are financially eligible for FSM.

A payment for the partial strike day on 08/12/2022 will be in bank accounts by 13/12/2022. This payment is only for those who are financially eligible for FSM in the schools or year groups affected by strike action.

Payments will be £2.30 for each primary child and £2.40 for each secondary child. Those receiving FSM due to universal access for P1-P5 are not eligible for the payment.

Any future strike days will be paid out on the same basis around 3 days after the strike day. Payments are not being made in advance in case strike action is cancelled.

If you have any questions, please pass via your Senior in the first instance.

CTax have provided example letters for the Exemption Reviews and also noted that 493 Discount Review letters were also posted out last Friday. Please see the links below if you need these whilst providing support to customers.

Tax Exemption Review

Taxation Discount Review

In addition to this, CTax have noted that all emails should be indexed to CTX Email Returned Review. I can confirm that once the review is uploaded that no reminder will be issued. It should also be noted that the job to issue these forms does not allow for the upload onto W2.

This should provide some clarity on some common queries received. Of course if you have any further questions, please pass via your Senior in the first instance.

Please be aware that the Taxation Timetables for the months of November and December 2022 have been uploaded to SharePoint for access. These can be viewed via the below links.

November 2022

December 2022

As a result of a number of enquiries from residents of Silversands Caravan Park, please see the following response from Taxation Manager James Taylor:

"Since the invoices have not been issued by the LA, we have no comment to make on them. If they caravan owners are unhappy with an invoice sent to them by the park owners, they should talk to the park owners as it was they who issued the invoices."

Support forms are not required to be added to W2 for customers making contact about this unless you need the Taxation team to take action.

A batch of 900 council tax review forms for all exemptions will be issued tomorrow. The review form will ask the customer to tick a box if the exemption on the council tax account is correct. If the information is not correct, it will ask the customer to provide the reason why.

The customer should complete and return the form as soon as possible. Failure to return the form may result in the cancellation of the exemption. If any customer raises a query, this should be provided with the returned form. However, if any customer needs to speak to a member of the team, please raise a support enquiry as normal.

If you have any questions about the above, please pass via your Seniors in the first instance.