Council tax benefit

About your claim

There are two benefits available for people who have to pay council tax. They are council tax benefit and second adult rebate.

Download a "Guide for homeowners who want to claim council tax benefit"

The application form available from the benefits section tells you how to claim these benefits. Once we have worked out your benefit entitlement you must check your notification letter very carefully to make sure we have used the correct details. If you find any mistakes let us know straight away.

Which benefit?

You cannot get both council tax benefit and second adult rebate at the same time. If you qualify for both, we will give you the one which will reduce your council tax the most.

 

You can claim council tax benefit if:

• you are on income support or job seekers allowance
• you are on a low income (this includes people who are self employed)

You cannot get council tax benefit if:

• you, or you and your partner between you, have more than £16,000 in savings

A partner is someone you are married to, or someone you live with as if you are married to them.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provide information on state benefits.

 

By completing an online housing/council tax benefit application form

Alternatively you can contact the Worcestershire Hub on 01562 732928

What if I earn money from work?

You must send proof of the money you earn so we can work out your council tax benefit.

If you work for an Employer
Please ask your employer to fill in the certificate of earned income form, which can be obtained from the Worcestershire Hub, alternatively download the certificate of earned income form.

If you are Self Employed
If you are self employed please send us your recent accounts. If you cannot do this, get in touch with us for more details.

If you cannot send the information now
Do not delay sending in your claim form if the proof we ask for is not available at the moment. But you must send this information as soon as possible. We cannot work out your benefit without it.

When will I be paid?

How long it takes to work out your claim depends on:

• how quickly you send in all the information
• how busy we are when you make your claim

We will pay your council tax benefit straight to your council tax account. You will get a bill showing any amount you have to pay after benefit has been awarded.

 

You may be able to get council tax benefit for the full amount of council tax that you have to pay. This will depend on your income and whether you have other people living in your house.

Go to our online benefit calculator for an online estimate of your benefit entitlement. 

 

If you have friends, relatives or anyone over 18 living in your home, you may get less council tax benefit. These people are called non-dependants. An amount may be taken out of your benefit for each non-dependant who lives in your home.

Non-dependant people do not include:

• your partner
• a child you get child benefit for
• people under 18 years old
• people in full-time education
• people on youth training schemes

If you get income support or job seekers allowance (income based)

If you get income support, or job seekers allowance you will get the full amount of your council tax as benefit after any non-dependant deductions have been taken off.

If you do not get income support or job seekers allowance (income based)

We work out your council tax benefit by comparing the money you get each week with your 'applicable amount'. Your applicable amount is what the government say you and your family need to live on each week.

The applicable amount will be higher for some people - for example, if you are disabled or you are a one parent family.

If the money you get each week is less than, or the same as the applicable amount, you will get the full amount of council tax benefit. If this happens you should claim income support or job seekers allowance as you may get more help.

 

We count the money you earn from work after money has been taken out for:

• tax and national insurance
• half of any money you pay into a pension fund

We also count any other money you have coming in. This includes most state benefits, works pensions and income from savings or capital you may have.

We do not count:

• Disability living allowance
• Attendance allowance
• Mobility allowance
• War widows pension
• War disablement pension

But we need to know if you get any of these, as you may get more council tax benefit.

What happens if I have savings or capital?

Government rules say that if you (and your partner if you are a couple) have savings or capital of more than £16,000, you cannot get council tax benefit. If you have £3,000 or less, it will not affect your claim.

If you have between £3,000 and £16,000, it affects how much council tax benefit you will get. For every £250 (or part of £250) you have over £3,000, we add £1.00 to the money we count each week when working out your benefit. We do not count any actual interest you get from savings and capital.

How to appeal?

You can appeal if you think your council tax benefit is incorrect.

 

You may be entitled to claim second adult rebate if you have non-dependants living with you who are on low income.

 

Yes, the next section is very important, please read it very carefully.

 

If anything happens during this time which might affect how much benefit you get, you must tell us immediately.

If you don't tell us about a change, and we pay you too much benefit, you may have to pay it back.

You must tell us about the following changes:

Changes to the money you get
Please tell us if:

• you start or stop getting income support or job seekers allowance (income based)
• you start or stop getting working tax credit and/or child tax credit
• the money you or your partner gets increases or decreases
• the money non-dependants get increases or decreases
• there are any other changes in the money people in your home get. For example, someone starts getting disability living allowance

If we give you too much benefit or second adult rebate, we will send you a letter. When we give you too much benefit, we call it an 'overpayment'.

The letter we send you will tell you:

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