Council Tax support and exemptions
- CTS is the working age local authority administered benefit which helps eligible customers pay some or all of their Council Tax bill.
- It can be also known as Council Tax Reduction (CTR)
- Each local authority (LA) have differing policies which details how their scheme is administered and how much can be paid. It's best to check each LAs scheme policy to see how it's operated and what can be paid
- Council Tax Benefit (CTB) is the pension age scheme offered by LAs for pension age customers
This is separate to the single persons discount which can be paid to eligible customers and can reduce the CT bill by 25%.
- If you claim Housing Benefit (HB) with your LA for your rent, CTS and CTB forms a part of the HB claim (if you're eligible for support)
- However, if you claim Universal Credit (UC) it may be you need to make a new claim for CTS as it does not form a part of the UC claim as it is LA paid benefit
- Dependent on the LAs scheme, you may receive a maximum of 100% CTS to cover their Council Tax bill or a certain percentage which they deem is a maximum i.e. 80% of the bills is covered and the remaining 20% has to be paid to meet the liability
- This depends on your individual circumstances and generally if you have over £6K in savings, you won't be eligible for CTS/CTB
- If CTS is awarded, it's paid direct to your CT account (not directly to you) and you'll receive a revised bill from the LA to confirm what CT you'll have to pay
- Eligible customers may be entitled to discounts and exemptions dependent on their circumstances. For example you're treated as ‘severely mentally impaired’, are a student or have any disabled adaptations in your home
- Discounts and exemptions can vary from 100% to 25% in total. This can be checked via the local authorities schemes and policies. You can find out more on the gov.uk website
