Council Tax Support

Council Tax Support will help to pay your Council Tax bill if you are on a low income. Council Tax Support is different to any discount or exemption.

To get Council Tax Support, you must:

• Be on a low income
• Be the person responsible for paying the Council Tax

You will not normally qualify for benefit if you have savings or investments of more than £10,000. You may have more savings than this and still get Council Tax Support if both you and your partner are over the State Pension Credit age.

You can use our benefit calculator to see what help you can get. If you are making a new claim for Universal Credit, Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support or Employment and Support Allowance, you need to make a separate claim for Council Tax Support.

Apply

If you have any problems with completing the online form, please contact us on 01622 602557.

What you will need

We need to see the documents that prove you need the benefit before we can pay you. They can either be originals or copies.

We will need to see:

• National Insurance numbers for you and your partner. Your partner needs to be someone you’re married to or living with as though you’re married.
• identity for you and your partner. For example, a passport or driving licence
• capital, savings and investments, including all bank and building society current and savings accounts
• earnings of everyone living with you, including your partner and anyone else over 18.
• any other income
• benefits, allowances or pensions

If you do not provide the evidence to us within a month, we may not be able to pay you any benefits.

You can send them to us using our online form or by post to:

If you’re having problems gathering your evidence, you can contact us or call 01622 602577.

Reconsiderations

If you're not satisfied with our decision or how we have explained our decision, you can ask that we reconsider our decision.

Send your request in writing to:

You need to make it clear which decision you are asking us to reconsider and your reasons why. You need to do this within a month of the decision you are appealing against.

We will write to confirm or amend our original decision. If you still do not agree with our decision, you can send an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Service, which will consider your case independently.

Telephone: 0300 123 1033
Email: appeals@vts.gsi.gov.uk

Overpayments

An overpayment happens when we pay Council Tax Support which you weren’t entitled to. If we have paid too much, you will receive a new Council Tax bill which will tell you how much you need to pay.

You need to tell us of any changes in your circumstances, to prevent any overpayments. This is your responsibility, do not rely on anyone else, such as the Jobcentre Plus, the Department for Work and Pensions or the Pension Service.

If a change does cause an overpayment, we will send you a letter giving you the full details of the overpayment. The letter will tell you why the overpayment happened, the amount you were overpaid and the period of the overpayment. It will also tell you whether we intend to recover the overpayment and what to do if you disagree with the overpayment.

How it's paid back

If we have paid you too much, you will be sent a revised bill which will tell you how much more you need to pay.

Second Adult Rebate

Second Adult Rebate is for single people liable to pay Council Tax, who are over the qualifying age for State Pension Credit and have other adults over the age of 18 on a low income living in the house who can't afford to help pay the bill.

Apply for second adult rebate

Other than your name and address, we will only need to know the income and capital for the second adult(s).

We will need to see:

• identity documents - Passport or photo driving licence, and one showing National Insurance number
• capital, savings and investments, including all bank and building society current and savings accounts
• earnings
• any other income
• benefits, allowances or pensions.

You can send them to us using our online form or by post to:

If you’re having problems gathering your evidence, you can contact us or call 01622 602577.