Council Tax support

Council tax support (CTS), also known as council tax reduction (CTR), is a discount for people who need to pay council tax on their home. The amount of discount depends on how much you earn and the number of people in your household.

Who can claim?

Council tax support is available to single people, families, couples, workers, retired people, the unemployed, and anyone with a low income.

You can apply for this support even if you own your home. However, you won’t qualify if you are of working age and have savings of £6,000 or more, or if you are of pension age and have savings over £16,000, unless you receive guaranteed pension credit.

I am pension age

There is a different national council tax support scheme for people who qualify for Pension Credit or the State Retirement Pension. If you are of pensionable age, the government has set rules that are used to calculate the amount of council tax support you will get.

Go to pension age scheme

I am working age

The council tax support scheme for working age people is set by the local authority. It uses your household size and weekly income to decide how much of a discount you get on your council tax. If you qualify, you could get a percentage off your council tax bill based on these factors.

Go to working age scheme

Mixed age couples

A mixed age couple is when one person is of pensionable age and the other is of working age.

If you or your partner get Universal Credit, you need to apply for council tax support for working-age people.

If you or your partner don’t get Universal Credit, you need to apply for council tax support for pension age people.

You can use a benefits calculator to find out what you might be entitled to.

Support payments

Council Tax support is automatically added to your account, so you get a lower bill instead of a separate payment. Your bill will show the discount you received and how much you still owe.

If you think there’s a mistake on your bill or if you might have trouble paying, please contact us right away.

Working age scheme

The table shows the level of discount you’ll receive based on:

The number of people in your household
The total income you have coming in on a weekly basis

These income bands are from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026

Income per week

Award level	Band	Single	Couples	Family with one child	Family with two or more children
65%	Band 1	£0 to £125	£0 to £175	£0 to £225	£0 to £275
50%	Band 2	£125.01 to £175	£175.01 to £225	£225.01 to £275	£275.01 to £325
35%	Band 3	£175.01 to £225	£225.01 to £275	£275.01 to £325	£325.01 to £375
20%	Band 4	£225.01 to £275	£275.01 to £325	£325.01 to £375	£375.01 to £425
0%	Band 5	£275.01 and over	£325.01 and over	£375.01 and over	£425.01 and over

Apply for council tax support – working age

Frequently Asked Questions

The maximum amount of discount you can be awarded is 65%.

Everyone of working age who is in receipt of Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance (income based) or Employment and Support Allowance (income related) will get the maximum available support.

No, the income bands do not increase where a household includes more than two children.

Income from Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independent Payments, Carers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, child benefit, and child maintenance are disregarded

No, war pensions are not included in the total of your income.

No deduction is made for adults other than you and your partner living in your household.

Net earnings are calculated from the gross wage less tax, national insurance, and 50% of any pension contributions.

If you’re self-employed, your income is calculated from either year-end accounts or day books (if you don’t have year-end accounts). If you’ve been trading for more than 12 months and your earnings are less than the national living wage rate at 35 hours (or 16 hours for a single parent), an assumed income of 35 or 16 hours at the national living wage rate will be used. This is known as the minimum income floor.

You must have savings below £6,000, including stocks and shares and all your accounts. Some savings may be disregarded, so please ask for further details.

We will apply:

an earnings disregard of £25 per week
a disability income disregard of £50 per week, per claim, where the claim includes a disability benefit
Universal Credit Element – the amount of Universal Credit which covers housing costs is not counted. Potentially other elements of your UC award will not be counted depending on your circumstances.

The income levels in the table above are after any income that is not counted.

Even if you think your income is higher than the band shown, do not let this stop you from claiming.

Backdated claims

If you are of working age, you could be entitled to up to 3 months of backdated council tax support. You will need to tell us the period you want your claim backdated for.

Pension age scheme

The government tells us how we must work out the discount for people of pensionable age. This is different to working age people. You can check your state Pension age on GOV.UK.

The maximum amount of help you can receive is 100% discount off your Council Tax bill.

Apply for Council Tax support

You’ll need to have the following details ready to enter into the online form

your identity and national insurance number
any savings and investments you have
the earnings, benefits, pensions or any other income you receive
your rent and tenancy if you are claiming housing benefit

If you are newly in receipt of Universal Credit and you have told the Department for Work and Pensions that you wish to claim help with your council tax, your details will be supplied directly to us and you do not need to fill in the form.

Where you share your tenancy with other people (who are not your partner) you will each need to make an application for council tax support.

Second adult rebate

We calculate this based on the circumstances of the other adults who live with you. You can claim Second Adult Rebate if you are of pension age and the only person who has to pay Council Tax for your home and you have other adults, such as older children, living with you. This help is only available to pensioners. The amount of help you can get depends on the financial circumstances of other adults who live with you. This could be a friend or relative who works part-time, is on benefits or retired.

Apply for council tax support – pension age

Providing evidence

When you finish the form, you’ll be told what proof you need to provide. You can attach your proof to the application form or send it later using the Benefits Evidence Request Form. Make sure to do this within 1 month of submitting your application.

You can submit these types of evidence:

Image files (GIF, JPG, TIF, PNG, BMP) up to 5000MB.
PDF files up to 5000MB.

The form doesn’t accept other file types like DOC/DOCX (Word) or XLS/XLSX (Excel). If you need to submit these, save them as PDFs first. In Word or Excel, click ‘Save As’ and choose ‘PDF’ from the ‘Save As type’ menu. Then attach the PDF to the form.

Benefits Evidence request form

Renewal and reporting changes

You do not have to renew your claim for council tax support each year as this is paid for as long as you are entitled to it.

Although this scheme is based on income bands, meaning small changes to your income will not change the amount of discount you’ve been awarded, we do need to know if you have any changes. This could be changes

in income or benefits,
or you change your address
or who is living in your household.

Not all changes in circumstance will lead to a change in your award, so please continue to pay your bill at the same amount.

We may invite you to complete a claim review to ensure we have the correct information.

Report a change in circumstances or address

Appeal a decision

If you think our decision about your council tax support is wrong, contact us first and ask us to look at the decision again. You can write to us at any point to say you disagree with a council tax support decision. We must reply to you within two months.

If we decide to change how much you are awarded, we will write to you. If we cannot alter our decision, we will tell you why and inform you of your right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

If you have not heard from us and it is two months since you wrote to us, you can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Service. But you must contact them within four months of when you first wrote to us.

You can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Service about:

whether you are entitled to council tax support
how much council tax support we have awarded you under our scheme
You cannot appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Service about the rules we have put in our scheme.

How to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal Service

You can appeal online or download a form on the Valuation Tribunal Service website to fill in and send back to them.