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Council Tax Benefit

Council Tax Benefit is money off your Council Tax bill if you are on a low income. Do not confuse this with Council Tax discounts which you can apply for from the Local Taxation Office, for example if you live alone. See the Council Tax & Business rates pages for more details on discounts.

Council Tax Benefit is normally awarded from the start of the claim up to the last day of March to cover the whole period of the bill.

You may be able to get Council Tax Benefit if you are on other benefits, work part-time or work full-time on a low income.

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 (unless you get Pension Credit).
You are not the liable person on the bill.

(A partner is someone you are married to, or someone you live with as if you are married to them, or a civil partner).

Second Adult Rebate

You can claim Second Adult Rebate if there are other people living in your home who are on a lower income than you. This allows us to use their income instead of yours to work out benefit.

You cannot claim Second Adult Rebate if you are married or have a partner, as the rules say you must be the only liable person in the property.

To check if you would qualify for either benefit, please visit on the Benefits Calculator page and follow the instructions. This will give you an estimate of the amount of benefit you could get.

If you think you would qualify, please see the How to claim HB and CTB page or to download a form visit the forms to download page.

For information about Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance or other benefits visit the other useful links page to get access to the Department for Work and Pensions pages.