What is Council Tax Benefit?

Council Tax Benefit is a Government scheme to help people pay their council tax if they are on a low income or get some state benefits:

  • People on income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance, Income Support or Passported Pension Credit, will not normally pay Council Tax if they make a claim for Council Tax Benefit, unless they have other adults living with them
  • People on low incomes will have their bills reduced
  • In certain cases, people can have their bills reduced, regardless of their own circumstances (including earnings and savings) because someone else who lives with them is on benefit or a low income. This is called Second Adult Rebate

Your Council Tax Benefit is automatically taken off your Council Tax bill.

You can claim Council Tax Benefit if you are the person (or one of the people) who is responsible for paying the Council Tax on your home:

Main Council Tax Benefit

This is paid to people on benefit or a low income, who are responsible for paying the Council Tax. If you are in receipt of income based Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support or Passported Pension Credit you will not have to pay Council Tax if you make a claim for benefit. However, your benefit may be reduced if you have other adults sharing your home.

The amount of benefit you can get also depends on how much money you have coming in, the amount of Council Tax you have to pay, the amount of money you need to live on and whether other adults share your home.

You cannot normally get main Council Tax Benefit if you have savings of £16,000 or more, some pensioners are excluded from this rule please contact the Revenues and Benefits Service for more details.

Second Adult Rebate

You can claim this even if you are not on a low income but are responsible for the Council Tax and share your home with one or more adults, who are:

  • over 18 and not paying you rent;
  • not your spouse or partner
  • not responsible for paying the Council Tax
  • on benefit or on a low income,

Your own income and savings are not taken into account.

You could qualify for a maximum rebate of 25% of your Council Tax bill.

If you think that you might qualify for this benefit, please contact the Revenues and Benefits section for further advice and a claim form. You can download an application form here. (This form is in pdf format - you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)

Second Adult Rebate can only be paid if the circumstances described above apply and you are the only person who is responsible for paying the Council Tax (unless the other responsible person(s) is/are not counted for Council Tax purposes).

How to Apply for Council Tax Benefit

To apply for Council Tax Benefit you must fill in a Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit claim form (pdf format) and send it back to us. You can also get a form from the Revenues and Benefits Service.

You can also get an estimate of your entitlement to Council Tax Benefit (and Housing Benefit) on this website.

Start date

Your entitlement will usually start from the Monday after we receive your form, or after you first contacted us asking to claim (but you must get your completed form to us within a month of contacting us). If you delay, you may receive less money. If you think you might be entitled to benefit, please make a claim as soon as possible.

Backdating

Sometimes we can pay benefit from an earlier date if you have good reason for not claiming earlier. If you want us to consider paying your benefit from an earlier date, tell us when you want benefit from and why you did not claim earlier.

Excess (or Overpaid) Council Tax Benefit

If you are paid too much Council Tax Benefit (CTB), it is called Excess Benefit. If Excess Benefit occurs, we will write and tell you. The letter will explain:

  • why we gave you too much benefit
  • how much the amount of excess benefit is
  • if you have to pay back the amount
  • how you can appeal if you think this is wrong

In most cases, this will change the amount of Council Tax you have to pay. If so, we will send you a revised Council Tax bill showing your new payments.