Council tax support
How is my council tax support calculated?
We begin by working out your council tax as a weekly amount.
For people over pension age:
We divide your yearly bill by 365 (or 366 in a leap year) and then multiply the daily charge by seven.
For people of working age:
We work out 88% of your yearly bill, then divide this figure by 365 (or 366 in a leap year) and multiply the result by seven.
This figure is your weekly eligible council tax.
We then make a deduction from your eligible council tax for any adults living with you who aren't financially dependent on you. This is called a non-dependant deduction. But we don't make this deduction if you're registered blind, getting attendance allowance, personal independence payment (daily living), armed forces independence payment, or the care component of disability living allowance.
If you're a pensioner getting guaranteed pension credit, you'll get a discount of the full amount of your council tax, less any non-dependant deductions.
If you're working age and getting income support, income-related employment and support allowance or income-based jobseekers' allowance, you'll get a discount of 88% of your council tax (less any non-dependant deductions).
If you're not on guaranteed pension credit, income support, income-related employment and support allowance or income-based jobseekers allowance and your income is more than your applicable amount (a 'needs' allowance' set down by the government, based on your personal circumstances), then we make a further deduction of 20% of the excess.
For example: a single person works part-time. Their needs' allowance is £84.80 per week and they earn £102.40 per week. We ignore the first £5 of their wages, but they are still £12.60 over their needs' allowance, so when working out how much council tax support to award, we take off 20% of £12.60 which is £2.52.
If you get pension savings credit, we'll use the income figures given to us by the pension service to work out your award.
If you get universal credit, we'll use the figures given to us by the Jobcentre to work out your award.
Last updated: 24/04/2023 11:32
