East Lothian residents who qualify for a cost of living payment will receive revised council tax bills from today (Wednesday).
The local authority says residents who have signed up to ebilling will receive emails confirming their new payments later today with letters going out to those on paper billing in the next week.
The Scottish Government has provided a £150 cost of living payment to every household in Bands A to D and households in receipt of council tax reduction to help meet increases introduced by local authorities this year.
East Lothian Council said that the payments would be credited to council tax accounts. A spokesperson today said: "All council tax accounts that qualify for the payment will have the £150 taken off with residents who have signed up to eBilling receiving their revised bill tonight via email and other households receiving revised paper bills with amended monthly payment details next week."
Councillors in East Lothian voted to increase council tax by three percent this year at a budget meeting last month. The increase meant that band D housing payments for 2022/23 is £1,341.70 for the year.
The local authority said that cuts in funding and pressures to increase spending meant the council has to achieve £15.571m in planned efficiencies in order to balance the budgets for the next three years.
And it pointed to the fact the county has one of the fastest rates of growth in population in Scotland from 104,000 to over 120,000 by 2037 as well as expecting the number of people aged 75 year or over to double, creating a rise in care services needed, as another major factor in increasing the bills.
The revised bills will mean direct debit customers will pay £15 less each month over ten payments.
