An Invercargill resident has struggled to understand his rates notice and believes many people across the city may be in the same boat.

Ian Campbell was confused as his notices had both "Tax Invoice" and " Statement of Account" printed on the same page of his document.

He believed the way it was being sent to residents was very confusing, especially for the elderly community.

"For what it is asking and what I need to pay, it’s actually unintelligible because there is no mention at all that there’s been the rates rebate.

"All the monetary information makes no sense if you are paying fortnightly and you don’t know what the amount of the rates rebate is."

Mr Campbell believed he was not alone in trying to decipher the accounts.

"You should have something that is actually meaningful by how you are paying. It’s not the dark ages."

Grey Power senior advocate Stephanie de Ruyter believed most people were able to follow their rates invoice without any difficulty, however, she often made phone calls to the council on behalf of people.

"They are very proactive about making sure organisations such as us have early access to rebate forms so that we can guide people through that process if necessary.

"If anyone isn’t certain about what they owe or whether their rates rebate has been granted in full or part, they’ve only got to pick up the phone."

She did not believe the rates notices were confusing but said they might be "lacking in useful information."

Invercargill City Council acting group finance and assurance manager Patricia Christie said the council was fielding about 415 rates-related calls a month, but not all were from people confused with their rates notices.

Calls ranged from queries about direct debits, penalties and why certain rates were charged on a property.

The council had made some layout changes to make them easier and more informative to read, she said.

"If rates notices included weekly instalments to be listed on the notice, by the fourth instalment there could be more than 40 transactions showing on an invoice," Ms Christie said.

The council’s online portal was unable to provide detailed payment information, she said.

In the past year, council staff had processed 2000 annual rate rebates applications.

Anyone who needed more rebate information could phone the council or go to the council website.

 - By Toni McDonald