The council tax benefit scheme can reduce the bill by as much as 100% even for homeowners with no mortgage to pay. For someone who is struggling to make ends meet, if they have not already claimed this benefit, I would urge them to do so. If you are aged 60 or over, it can be claimed from the Pension Service (part of the DWP) alongside claiming Pension Credit which is intended to guarantee everyone aged 60 or over a weekly income of £124.05 (if they are single) and £189.35 (if they are a couple). In making these calculations, savings of below £6,000 are disregarded and for every £500 above this limit, £1 is added to the calculation of their weekly income.
Alternatively, anyone can claim council tax benefit direct from the Council. For people under 60, or those of pension age who are not getting the Guarantee part of Pension Credit, there is an upper savings limit of £16,000. Therefore, if a single person or a couple have more than this in savings, then they cannot get council tax benefit. This is part of the government's national benefit scheme and no doubt they take the view that people with savings above this limit would not struggle to pay their council tax bill.
Because council tax benefit varies according to the amount of the council tax bill, the number of people living in the house and the income and savings of the household, it is not possible to give a single weekly income figure below which someone would definitely get some help from this scheme. For this reason, we have a benefit calculator accessible so people can quickly work out if they might qualify before going on to make a claim. For anyone who does not have website access, they can call us on 01775 761161 and ask if we can give them an idea of whether they should be claiming.
