Stormont department apology over wrong web link

A Stormont department has apologised after 295,000 ratepayers were sent bills which had an incorrect weblink for making a payment.

Rates are a property tax which help fund public services in Northern Ireland.

Bills for the new financial year were issued to households and businesses from the beginning of April.

The Department of Finance said the “incorrect link” had now been removed from future bills.

There are about 850,000 rateable domestic properties and 75,000 non-domestic properties in Northern Ireland.

Rates are collected by a public agency in the Department of Finance called Land and Property Services (LPS).

It is understood the URL link to the NI Direct website used the domain extension “.co.uk” instead of “.gov.uk”.

In a statement, the department said LPS was “aware of an incorrect link provided on the second page of one of the versions of the bills that issued to approximately 295,000 ratepayers”.

“This detail has now been removed and will not appear in future rate bills. LPS apologises for any inconvenience this may cause,” a spokesperson added.

“While the majority of visitors to rates pages on NI Direct use a search engine rather than typing in the direct URL, ratepayers who do key in the URL are asked to use the link www.nidirect.gov.uk/rates to access information about domestic rates.

“If bill payers have any concerns about their rate bills, they should contact LPS.”

The average household rate bill in Northern Ireland in 2024-25 was £1,180, according to the Department of Finance.