MORE than 10,000 hard-up households in Blackburn with Darwen borough are expected to benefit from the government's £150 payment towards their council tax.

And its finance boss expected the number eligible for the benefit to rise sharply as coronavirus eats into the local economy.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's execute member of resources Cllr Vicky McGurk has revealed that it has received £2,194,182 from Whitehall to pay out the council tax relief to pay out from the Covid-19 Hardship Fund 2020/21.

She said: "This new grant has been allocated to support economically vulnerable people through the pandemic via a council tax relief.

"The government has outlined its expectation that all recipients of working age Council Tax Support during the financial year 2020/21 will receive a further reduction in their annual Council Tax bill of £150.

"In addition, councils have been asked to establish their own local approach to using the remainder of the grant to assist those in need.

"On the March 31 there was a total of 10,609 working age claimants in receipt of Council Tax Support.

"However as expected, this figure has continued to increase throughout April and looks likely to increase significantly during the financial year.

"All current recipients of Council Tax Support will be awarded an additional £150. However, if the amount owed is less than £150, the amount awarded will look to reduce the liability to nil.

"As the impact of the recession becomes known, it will be become clearer as to how many additional claimants will require the £150 award.

"Once we have greater clarity on the number of people claiming Council Tax Support we will be in a position to develop further policies to allocate any residual funding."