Council Tax Benefits
One may be eligible to get Council Tax Benefit while paying for Council Tax but when his income and investments are below a certain rank. This holds true whether the person paying council tax bill is living on rent or if the person is the owner himself.
To start with, there are two main criteria on basis of which it is screened whether a person is eligible for any benefits or any relief from council tax or not. The following are the two main criteria:
- Criteria of age: If a person is less than 18 years of age, he is not liable to pay council taxes at all and hence he does not get any benefits.
- Mentally unfit: If a person is mentally unfit, he is not liable to pay council taxes at all and hence he does not get any benefits.
- Criteria of income: If yearly income is below £16,000 (or £9,600 if one doesn't have children), only then is he eligible for council tax benefit. In this case, the local authorities will consider to provide some discount on the council tax bill. The amount of discount will vary from case to case and is not a fixed percentage.
Council Tax Discount:
If there is a group of people living in a domestic property in which only one person is eligible to pay for council taxes, there can be a discount of about 25 per cent on the bill. However in such a group of people living together, if there is no one who is considered to be eligible to pay the taxes, then also the group together is liable to pay at least 50% of the council tax bill. There will no exemption from council taxes but a discount of 50% in this case. Such a group of people who are not eligible to pay council taxes are called as disregarded. Under the following conditions, any person is considered to be disregarded:
- Below 18 years of age
- A prisoner or someone in detention awaiting expulsion or under mental health legislation
- Mentally impaired
- A full-time student on a qualifying course of education, including student nurses
- A spouse, civil partner or a dependant of a student who is a non- British Citizen and who, under immigration rules, is not allowed either to work in the UK or claim benefit
- A young person on a government training scheme or following some kinds of apprenticeship
- A long-term hospital patient or care home resident
- Living in a hostel which provides care or treatment because of your old age, physical or mental disability, past or present alcohol or drug dependence or past or present mental illness
- Living in a bail or probation hostel
- A live-in care worker
- Staying in a hostel or night shelter, for example, in a Salvation Army or Church Army hostel
- A school or college leaver aged under 20 and you have left school or college after 30 April. You will be disregarded until 1 November of the same year whether or not you take up employment
- Aged 18 and someone is entitled to Child Benefit for you
- A member of a religious community
- A member of a visiting armed force. Your dependants are also disregarded.
Also if one is liable for council tax on a second home, he could receive a discount between 10-50% at the judgement of the local council.
Second Adult rebate: A person can either get a council tax benefit or can get what is called as a second adult rebate. One cannot combine both the benefits together, but will get whichever is higher. The council considers the fact that any council tax bill is supposed to be paid off by two adults living together. In such a case, if only one adult is eligible to pay for the taxes and the second is not due to various reasons as discussed below, what applies is known as a second order rebate. This rebate straighaway gives a benefit of 25% to the tax payer.
One can get a good discount if he is eligible for a second adult rebate. The following are the eligibility criteria for second adult rebate when one shares his/her home with a person who is:
-
- Not your partner or civil partner
- Aged 18 or over
- Not paying you rent
- Not paying Council Tax themselves
- On a low income
One may be able to get Second Adult Rebate even if you don't receive Council Tax Benefit when one is:
- Not entitled to Council Tax Benefit
- Only entitled to benefit which would cover 25 per cent or less of your Council Tax
Your local authority should automatically check if you are entitled to a Second Adult Rebate.
When the local councils calculate out anyone's Council Tax Benefit, they would consider the following points:
- Income of both the partners staying together. This income would include earnings, benefits and tax credits and also pensions.
- Total savings done by both the partners.
- Any other factors like one's age, the size of the family and their ages, if any member of the family are disabled, and if anyone who also lives who could help with the rent
After considering these factors, the maximum council tax benefit that one can get can be up to 100 per cent reduction on the council tax bill. Generally there are approximate percentages which are entitled to different reasons for second adult rebate.
For the reason of income support, income based jobseeker's allowance; the maximum benefit that one can obtain is around 25%.
For a different reason when the other adult's gross weekly income is less than £175.00, then the rebate can be around 15% and if the gross weekly income ranges between £175.00 to £227.99, then rebate can be up to 7.5%
If one is eligible for both Council Tax Benefit as well as Second Adult Rebate, one will only get one benefit out of them whichever is higher benefit.
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