One thing on everyones mid currently – inflation and everything becoming more expensive. This is impacting all the utilities, mortgages, groceries, etc. The new addition to the mix – council tax is likely to go up by up to 5% as of April as well.
This won’t be great news for all of us. With most things becoming more expensive way ahead of wage growth rate – many families and individuals will feel the pressure this creates.
When it comes to council tax – few things are worth knowing. Not everyone has to pay the full amount that their property band would be worth.
Below I will give a few examples of how you can save yourself money on council tax. This can make a significant difference to those who learn about it just now.
what is council tax?
Council tax is an annual fee you have to pay for the property you live in. If you are renting a property – you might not need to pay this. It will depend on the contract you signed when moving in. Sometimes landlords include the council tax in the rent they are charging.
Your local council collects the payments from all the properties. The money is then used to provide communal services. This covers things like police, firefighters, rubbish collection, local parks and libraries. This doesn’t cover all of the services. There is a long list of things the money gets used for.
The payments are normally collected over 10 months. The last 2 months of the year you do not need to pay any council tax. Many councils currently offer you to pay this in a more standard way – spreading the council tax bill over 12 months instead.
single person discount
While council tax will become more expensive – knowing ways to make it cheaper is important.
The first way that people can apply for a discount – if there is a single adult person living in the property. This could give one a 25% saving.
This discount would apply to you in several cases. Firstly, is the obvious one – you are the only person living in the property.
Secondly, you are an adult and live in the property only with kids.
Either of the above gives you a 25% discount. This is something definitely worth applying for. And the process is really simple and straightforward. The link to how to go about it can be found in the summary of this article.
student council tax discount
This is another popular way people get a council tax discount – students.
Students, like kids, do not count towards the number of heads living in the property.
When it comes to students there are 3 possible outcomes of what your council tax might look like.
Firstly, if a student lives in a household with 2 or more adults who have no discounts that apply to them. In this case – there is no discount that would apply to this particular property.
Secondly, if the student lives in a household with only 1 adult. In this case – the whole household falls into single person home. The 25% discount from the paragraph above would apply.
Thirdly, a home that is occupied by students only. In this case – there is no council tax that needs to be paid at all.
disabled person discount
This is the last case that I will cover in this article. The size of a discount you might be able to get here is fairly hard to estimate. This will depend on many factors some of which you will be required to prove.
First type of discount you might be eligible for as a disabled person – band reduction. For example, the property you live in is Band C. The discount however will require you to pay council tax as if you live in a property of Band B.
If you already live in the lowest possible property band which is A – you might be able to get 17% discount. In order to get the above – you will need to prove that your property has extra space that you wouldn’t need if you were not disabled. This would also work in case if there was a person living with you who was disabled.
If you are severely mentally impaired – the discount you could get is as big as 100%. It would only apply if you were living in the property on your own or with a full time student.
In case if there is a severely mentally impaired person living with you – the discount you could apply for is 25%.
summary
The above should give you a great starting point for the list of cases when you could apply for a council tax discount. On top of the above – I would check if there are any discounts in case if you are claiming any benefits. This can be different for different councils.
Knowing the rules that apply to you personally can help you save significant amount of money. The process to apply for this is extremely simple as well.
In order to check what discounts you might be able to get check this link. Follow the steps and find out if there is a discount that can apply to your annual bill.
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