Council tax benefit and non dependent deduction

bodorange

Hi,

I live with my mum, who owns the house. Both our names appear on the council tax demand.

I am in full time employment and my mother is in receipt of pension credit. I have previously paid 50% of the latest council tax demand and we have now had the result of her council tax benefit application. It states that she is eligible for 100% CBT but makes a (post 26 week) deduction based on my earnings. This reduces her weekly CBT by approx 50%.

Since I have paid 50% of the current council tax bill on the property, is it correct that her benefit is being reduced by way of non-dependent contribution rule based on my income? This would seem correct had I not already paid half the full demand.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

real1314

I *think* this is just a bit of confusion?

Let's say the Council tax Bill is £1000 for the year.

You say you have paid half of it, so that would be £500 paid and £500 outstanding.

Your mum has claimed Council Tax Benefit on the full bill of £1000, and has been allowed in full subject to a 50% Non-Dependent deduction for you, so £500 allowed as CTB; That should leave £0 to pay.


Unless of course, the council have calculated the CTB on your mum's half of the bill, ie £500 bill, subject to 50% deduction, leaving HER with £250 to pay?

Some actual figure would help to clarify what's going on. :cool:

fluffymovie

As your mum owns the house, you aren't a liable person and your name should not be on the bill.

You are not a liable party so your mum has applied for help with the bill and you are a non dependant. Personally, I would not agree to the 6 month delay as this is not supposed to be for new claims.

bodorange

real1314 wrote: »

I *think* this is just a bit of confusion?
Unless of course, the council have calculated the CTB on your mum's half of the bill, ie £500 bill, subject to 50% deduction, leaving HER with £250 to pay?
Some actual figure would help to clarify what's going on.

Yes that is how it is. The full CT is £1700.

In January my mother applied for CTB. She finally received the benefit calculation in October, which I immediately queried. Whilst we were waiting for the CTB application to be processed (8 months), I paid £850. Basically to show my intent to pay, made under the expectation she would receive 100% CTB on her *part* of the liability. I have since realised that this notion of us being liable for %50 each is wrong and that as far as the council is concerned we are jointly responsible.

Incidentally, the reason we are both named on the demand is that my mother inherited the house from her mother. Since we have both lived there some time the council were aware of this and both our names appeared on the new demand when her mother died. We were unable, at the time, to provide documents to prove my mother as solely responsible, probate was still in progress.

Now, having paid half the council tax, it seems strange to me they are making a non-dependent deduction on her CTB based on my earnings. I thought the idea behind this was an assumption I would be contributing and so she should receive less. They don't need to make an assumption as I am named on the demand and they have already received a payment from me for half of it.

I wonder if, rather than an oversight, it is just the way it works and it would be in our interest if the CT bill was only in her name, she then applies for CTB and gets a non-dependent reduction based on my earnings? Resulting in an overall 75% CTB rather than the %25 we are seeing at the moment.

What gets me is when my grandmother died, the council had a fresh council tax demand sent out with the new details. This within 3 weeks of her death and xmas/new year in between.

bodorange

fluffymovie wrote: »

Personally, I would not agree to the 6 month delay as this is not supposed to be for new claims.

The six month delay is a period where the non-dependent deduction has NOT been made. Apparently because my mum is over 65. That is in fact one consolation. Had they not done that we would be worst off.