Council Tax benefit: calculation and disregards

MrsBartolozzi

I've been claiming CTB for 2 years now, at a rate which seems quite small compared to others' I've spoken to who earn a similar amount to me. When my recent calculation came through I was confused by the council's calculations regarding income (my pay was the only itemised income, everything was lumped together in "all other income") which made it a bit confusing to see where their figures came from. Also their disregards was the same - no saying what was disregarded or why.

I put my details into Entitled to and they came up with a weekly ctb figure of nearly double what my council said. Now I am aware there are discrepencies with entitledto, but one thing I did notice was that entitled to said my ctb was based on my getting £x for CTC and £y for WTC. Does this mean that ctc and wtc are treated differently wrt ctb? I know that CB is disregarded. Is CTC too?

Thanks for any help, I'm beginning to think it's not worth the intrusiveness for such a small amount (only £2.xx a week).

sleepless_saver

Tax credits are not disregarded for council tax benefit.

You could give them a call and ask them to break down the figures so you can check it's right.

zagfles

CTC is not disregarded, but having children gets an increase in the Applicable Amount (which is the amount at which the taper starts), so effectively it is disregarded, as it's added then subtracted!

CB is added to the AA too but then disregarded as income, so the more children you have the more CTB you'd get even though you get more CTC & CB!

WTC is not disregarded at all so that will reduce your CTB.

daimonde

for me that £2pw would add up to an instalment off my yearly council tax, which aint bad.

tax credits should be updated with an interface between your LA & the HMRC nowadays & so *should* be right. however there have been a good few problems with this interface, especially this last couple of weeks, so definitely check out the figures.

why tax credits appear separately on an award is a query ive had a few times, most people get one payment for both tax credits (i believe) whereas for benefits its always two different incomes, its just that difference that often causes confusion.

one area that could make a difference that isnt automatically updated though is childcare costs, if you have some the LA arent aware of they can make a difference to your award.

fluffymovie

I get a lot of queries from people who have compared to what others receive but every case is assessed on it's own merits and so I always advise not to compare.

The calculation is based on what the Government say you need, vs what you have coming in.

Earnings are taken into account and if you work and are part of a couple, we disregard the first £10 of earnings from the total (not £10 each), £5 for a single claimant, £20 if you are disabled and £25 for a lone parent.

If you work 16 hours and are a lone parent, we deduct an additional £17.10 from earnings, 30 hrs if not (and are over 25)

The applicable amount is calculated as follows

1 - Personal premium (single person £71)
2 - Add dependents allowances (don't have this years figures to hand but was £62.33 last year)
3 - Family premium if you have children, 1 lot of 17.40

We then take your applicable amount from your total income after disregards (WTC and CTC are not disregarded) and you pay 20% towards your own Ctax.

If you want to PM your figures, I can have a quick check for you.

fogartyblue.

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

I've been claiming CTB for 2 years now, at a rate which seems quite small compared to others' I've spoken to who earn a similar amount to me. When my recent calculation came through I was confused by the council's calculations regarding income (my pay was the only itemised income, everything was lumped together in "all other income") which made it a bit confusing to see where their figures came from. Also their disregards was the same - no saying what was disregarded or why.

I put my details into Entitled to and they came up with a weekly ctb figure of nearly double what my council said. Now I am aware there are discrepencies with entitledto, but one thing I did notice was that entitled to said my ctb was based on my getting £x for CTC and £y for WTC. Does this mean that ctc and wtc are treated differently wrt ctb? I know that CB is disregarded. Is CTC too?

Thanks for any help, I'm beginning to think it's not worth the intrusiveness for such a small amount (only £2.xx a week).

Hi like you I am having the same problem.
Up to now I have had 2 home visits (December 2011 & January 2012) to go through my affairs. 1 visit I made to the council offices to take some more info down in February 2012. Now you would think that with all of that they could get it right. Nope! Like you they have lumped all of the income together as one figure.
Up to now I have written 3 letters and have put appeals in for them to explain how they have calculated the income figure.

Still nothing. I am more than able to work out what CTB I should have - which is almost double what they are giving me.
They did telephone me and asked me to send in my figures to show then how it should be done, but I refused - that isn't my job or responsibility.

Until they come up with the right amount they will get nothing out of me.

What I think is causing them a headache in part is the tax that I pay under the online Self Assesment procedure.

I pay my annual tax on the 31st January for the previous financial year. In other words what I paid on the 31st January 2012, related to the income earned during the year 6th April 2010 - 5th April 2011.
I then demanded that they review the CTB for 2010/11 in February 2012. They say they can't as it is out of the 13 month period??? This is also the same problem with the Jan 2011 tax payment which relates to the year commencing 5th April 2009.

As I can't be the only one that pays their tax this way, they had better find a way of giving me credit for it in the calculations.

I think they are hoping that i will go away eventually and accept the overpayments of CT 2009/10 and 2010/11 and just pay the current years liability. There will be a problem with this years assessment (2012/13) in January 2014 when I know how much tax I will have to pay.

So far I have been through 3 different people who all say different things and none can understand what I am going on about! So I have given up with them. If they want some money, they had better sort it out.

zagfles

fluffymovie wrote: »

I get a lot of queries from people who have compared to what others receive but every case is assessed on it's own merits and so I always advise not to compare.

The calculation is based on what the Government say you need, vs what you have coming in.

Earnings are taken into account and if you work and are part of a couple, we disregard the first £10 of earnings from the total (not £10 each), £5 for a single claimant, £20 if you are disabled and £25 for a lone parent.

If you work 16 hours and are a lone parent, we deduct an additional £17.10 from earnings, 30 hrs if not (and are over 25)

The applicable amount is calculated as follows

1 - Personal premium (single person £71)
2 - Add dependents allowances (don't have this years figures to hand but was £62.33 last year)

It'll be £64.99 this year - 2690/365*7+13.40, see below. The child/family elements in the AA are always exactly the same as child ben plus max CTC.

3 - Family premium if you have children, 1 lot of 17.40

We then take your applicable amount from your total income after disregards (WTC and CTC are not disregarded) and you pay 20% towards your own Ctax.

If you want to PM your figures, I can have a quick check for you.

I usually cheat and short-cut the calculation by disregarding CTC & Child ben, and adding Ch ben to the AA with no dependants premiums. Works unless they are getting a different rate of CTC, eg paying back an o/p, earning more than £16k (unusual if claiming CTB).