Local Council Tax Support
What is Local Council Tax Support (LCTS)?
LCTS is a scheme to help people on a low income pay their Council Tax. The amount of support you can get will depend on your income and your personal circumstances.
All working age customers will have to pay at least 25% of their council tax. LCTS will be limited to a maximum 75% of the council tax bill.
If you are of state retirement pension age or receive pension credit, LCTS will be calculated on your full Council Tax charge.
Are you eligible?
Our scheme uses a series of income bands, we will work out your entitlement to LCTS based on which band your total income falls within.
This table shows the reduction that will be applied to your Council Tax based on your weekly income and household.
| Band | Level of LCTS | Couple with children | Couple with no children | Single parent with one child | Single parent with two or more children | Single person |
| 1 | 75% | Passport benefit | Passport benefit | Passport benefit | Passport benefit | Passport benefit |
| 2 | 75% | £0.00 - £310.00 | £0.00 - £145.00 | £0.00 - £175.00 | £0.00 - £260.00 | £0.00 - £95.00 |
| 3 | 65% | £310.01 - £360.00 | £145.01 -£195.00 | £175.01 - £225.00 |
£260.01
- £310.00
|
£95.01
- £145.00
|
| 4 | 45% | £360.01 - £410.00 | £195.01 - £245.00 | £225.01 - £275.00 | £310.01 - £360.00 | £145.01 - £195.00 |
| 5 | 25% | £410.01 - £460.00 | £245.01 - £295.00 | £275.01 - £325.00 |
£360.01 - £410.00 | £195.01 - £245.00 |
| 6 | 0% | £460.01+ |
£295.01+ | £325.01+
|
£410.01+ | £245.01+ |
If you or your partner are in receipt of one of the following passported benefits, you will be placed in band one.
Passport benefits are:
- Income Support
- Employment and Support Allowance (income related
- Jobseeker's Allowance (income based).
Any other working-age household will get support in Band 2-6 depending on the level of their income.
- Anyone with a non-dependant living in their property will have £2 deducted from their weekly LCTS.
- Anyone with savings of £6,000 or more will not qualify for LCTS, unless in receipt of a passported benefit.
- Anyone currently in work will have £25 disregarded from their weekly income.
- If you live in a band D – H property, your entitlement will be capped at the level of a band C property.
- When calculating income for people that are self-employed, we apply a minimum income floor.
Certain incomes will be disregarded including:
- Disability Living Allowance
- Personal Independence Payments
- Employment and Support Allowance support component
- Child Benefit, Child Maintenance
- Carers Allowance
- War Disablement Pension.
There is a different entitlement for people of pension age.
- Download information about current and previous years schemes.
- Download and read our Local Council Tax Support Scheme policy (PDF, 1MB)
Disputing a decision
If you have received a decision and you do not understand it, you can ask for it to be explained. You must do this in writing within one month of the date of the decision.
If you think the decision is wrong, you can ask us to look at it again. If the decision is wrong, you will be notified of the outcome.
Making an appeal
If we do not change our decision, you have the right to appeal to an independent body, the Valuation Tribunal. You will need to fill in an appeal form. You can do this online at The Valuation Tribunal.
You must send your appeal to the tribunal within two months of the date of your decision notice.
You have two months to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal after we have given you a final written decision. If you have not received a reply within two months, you can still appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if no more than four months have passed since you wrote us about the problem with your bill.