If you pay council tax on your home and you are on a low income, you may be able to get help paying your bill.
About council tax support
If you are entitled to help, we will pay the council tax support directly onto your council tax account for the whole year. This means you will get a reduced council tax bill.
Who can get council tax support
Anyone who has to pay council tax can apply for council tax support.
How to apply for council tax support
To apply for council tax support, you need to complete a claim form. You can do this by:
- Downloading a Council Tax Support Form
- Calling us, using the contact details below
- Emailing the Benefits team using the contact details below
For more information, please see our Claiming housing benefit and council tax support page.
How much council tax you will pay
If you are of working age and are on a low income you may be entitled to up to 100% support with your council tax. By working age, we mean adults, who are aged between 18 and state pension age.
Support for people of pensionable age is protected in line with our old council tax benefit scheme.
We also consider child benefit and child maintenance as income when we assess the amount of support.
If you are of working age and have capital or savings that total more than £6,000, you cannot get any council tax support.
From 1 April 2018, we limited the number of dependent children to two when calculating council tax support.
We send out new council tax bills in March each year, but if you have any changes to your support during the year, you will get a new bill each time.
How to pay your council tax
The easiest way to pay is to set up a direct debit. For details visit our How to pay your council tax page
If you don't pay your council tax
If you fall behind with your payments, we will send you a reminder. You will have seven days to pay the late instalment. If you do not pay it, you will lose the right to pay by instalment and will have to pay the whole year within a further seven days. If you would like more information about this please see our what happens if you don't pay your council tax page.
If you think the support you are getting is wrong
If you think the calculation is wrong, you can ask us to check it again. If you still disagree after we have checked it, you can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal who will consider your appeal.
You cannot appeal to the Valuation Tribunal on the grounds that you disagree with our scheme.
If you are struggling to pay your council tax
If you are worried about not being able to pay, please contact us as soon as possible.
We may also be able to help you from our Exceptional hardship fund. You will need to complete and return our exceptional hardship claim form.
Additional information
Contact us