Council tax support

Online housing benefits and council tax support

On Wednesday 9 December we’re changing to a new online system for housing benefits and council tax support. The current system, via My Account, will end from 10am, Tuesday 8 December.

The change will not affect any applications you've already made – these will continue as normal. We will contact you when we've finished processing them. You don't need to contact us.

There will be no change to housing benefit or council tax support you already receive. These will continue. You don't need to contact us.

About the local scheme

Households on low income can get council tax support. The local council tax scheme is paid for from our funds, not by central government.

The main points of the 2020/21 local council tax support scheme are:

  • all working-age claimants must pay a minimum of at least 25% of their council tax themselves
  • working-age people with more than £6,000 in savings are not entitled to claim local council tax support
  • £25 per week of all earned income is fully disregarded when we work out entitlement
  • war pension income for disablement or bereavement is fully disregarded
  • Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment incomes are fully disregarded
  • local council tax support can be backdated for 1 calendar month only
  • you are not entitled to support if you are absent from Great Britain for 4 weeks or more
  • in most cases, a maximum of 2 children will be taken into account when we work out entitlement, even if there are 3 or more children in the household

You can download the full scheme below.

Council tax reduction scheme, 2020/21 (PDF 1.36MB)