Council Tax Benefit - About your Claim
Council Tax Benefit
Frequently Asked Questions
- About your claim?
- Can I claim?
- How do I claim?
- What if I earn money from work?
- When will I be paid?
- How will I be paid?
- How much Council Tax Benefit can I get?
- What happens if there are other people living with me?
- How is my Council Tax Benefit worked out?
- What money is counted when my benefit is worked out?
- What happens if I have savings or capital?
- What if you disagree with a decision?
- Second adult rebate?
- I have already claimed Council Tax Benefit. Is there anything else I should know?
- If anything changes?
- What happens if we give you too much benefit?
- If you want more information
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. Dowload the application forms.
This webpage tells you how to claim these benefits. It will help you understand how 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.
Can I claim?
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 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.
Second Adult Rebate
You can claim Second Adult Rebate if there are other people living in your home who are on a low income.
You cannot claim Second Adult Rebate if you are married or have a partner. View more details on the Second Adult Rebate.
How do I claim?
If you claim Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance the DWP will give you a form NHB1 for you to claim Council Tax Benefit. (The DWP are part of the Department of Works and Pensions). You can claim Housing Benefit which is help with your rent on the same form. Fill in the form and send it back to the DWP straight away. They will send the form to us (the Council Tax Benefits Section) with proof of your Income Support/Job Seeker Allowance (income based) claim.
If you have not claimed income support or job seekers allowance (income based)
You can claim Council Tax Benefit if you are on a low income.
You can get the claim form from any of these places:
- The Council Tax Benefit Section
- Council Customer Service Centres, Welfare Rights Unit,Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne. OL6 6DL
- Any Citizens Advice Bureau
Please read the guidance notes accompanying the application forms if you are unsure which to complete
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 earnings certificate at the back of the claim form.
If you cannot get your employer to fill it in, you will have to send us:-
- Your last 5 payslips if you are paid weekly
- Your last 2 payslips if you are paid monthly
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 send you a letter telling you how we worked out your Council Tax Benefit. Please check the information in this letter very carefully, if there is anything you think is wrong, you Must tell us straight away.
Your benefit letter tells you if if you might be able to get Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance (income based) please apply to the Benefits Agency.
When does my Benefit start?
Your benefit usually starts from the Monday after we get your claim form.
If you think Benefit should start earlier
If you think your benefit should start earlier, you can say so on the form.
Please write down:-
- The date you think your benefit should start
- The reason why you did not claim earlier
If you get benefit from an earlier date, it is called backdating. Your benefit can be backdated by up to 52 weeks if you have a good reason for not claiming earlier.
How will I be paid?
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.
How much Council Tax Benefit can I get?
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.
What happens if there are other people living with me?
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-dependant. An amount may be taken out of your benefit for each non-dependant who lives in your home.
Non-dependant 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
No money will be taken out of your benefit for non-dependants if:-
- You get Attendance Allowance
- You get the care part of Disability Living Allowance
- You are registered blind
How is my Council Tax Benefit worked out?
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.
What money is counted when my Benefit is worked out?
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 do not count:-
- The first £5.00 of the money you earn each week, if you are single
- The first £10.00 of the money you earn each week, if you are a couple
- The first £20.00 of the money you earn each week, if you are disabled
- The first £25.00 of the money you earn each week, if you are a single parent
We also count any other money you have coming in. This includes most Social Security benefits, maintenance, works pensions and any savings or capital you have.
We do not count:-
- Disability Living Allowance
- Attendance Allowance
- Mobility Allowance
- War Widows Pension
- War Disablement Pension
- The first £15 of any maintenance payments you receive if you have dependant children
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. This is called 'Tariff Income'.
If you or your partner are aged 60 or over, tariff income will only be used if your capital exceed £6,000.
What if you disagree with our decision?
If you are unhappy about any decisions we have made, please tell us and we will explain our decision to you.
If you still think it is wrong after we have explained it to you, we will look at it again.
For some decisions, you can appeal to an Independent Tribunal who can change the decision if they agree that it is wrong.
There are time limits when asking for decisions to be looked at again and for appealing.
Second Adult Rebate
Second Adult Rebate is another way to help you pay less Council Tax. It is not based on the money you have, but on the money other people who live with you have.
You may be able to get it if there are other people living in your home who are on a low income or Income Support.
In order to be classed as a Second adult, the non-dependant Must Not be:
- Liable for Council Tax
- A joint owner or tenant with you
- Your married or unmarried partner
- Living with more than one liable person
You will need to make a claim for Second Adult Rebate unless you have already claimed Council Tax Benefit. The gross income of the second adult will be taken into account when assessing entitlement to Second Adult Rebate.
The maximum amount that can be awarded is 25% of the Council Tax bill.
I have already claimed Council Tax Benefit, is there anything else I should know?
Yes, the next section is very important, please read it very carefully.
If anything changes
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 Family 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
Changes in your home
Please tell us if:-
- You change your address
- The number of people in your home changes - for example, someone has a baby
- A partner comes to live with you
- A partner leaves
Other changes
Please tell us if:-
- You, or your partner, go into hospital for more than 6 weeks
- You, or your partner, become a student, or stop being a student
- The amount of savings or capital you have changes
You do not have to tell us about changes in age (for example, if one your children becomes 11 years old), as we will have this information already.
What happens if we give you too much Benefit?
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
In most cases we will send you a revised Council Tax bill, and you will usually have to pay more Council Tax.
If you want more information
If you have any questions about Council Tax Benefit you can contact Tameside's Customer Services or Council Tax Section.
You can also get help from:
- The Welfare Rights Unit on 0161 342 3068
- Any Citizens Advice Bureau
