Council Tax Benefit

AnotherMakes3

Does anyone know if this is a tiered system or if its a simple entitled to or not thing?

We qualified for CTB last year but this year they seem to have taken it away. From my calculations we should still be entitled and if we're not it would be by just a few £. Is it like TC where any amount over a certain number then makes the benefit less or is it a dead cut off of you either get it or you don't.

daimonde

yes its tapered, its not a straight yes or no, but with it being small weekly amounts involved, its quite easy to not qualify if that makes sense.

AnotherMakes3

Thanks atm our applicable amounts are £323, with my other halfs basic wage and TC minus their deductions of £17 and £10 would give us £317 which would mean we should qualify, I'm just not sure on how much we would get. He can make up to £50 per month (12.50 per week) bonus but its sales related so he may get nothing or may get anything up to £50.

Atm we are paying £200 per month CT (inc water and sewage).

No idea where to go next with this?? Surely the £30 bonus he got last month shouldn't mean we go from getting £160 of benefit removed??

daimonde

im a bit confused here, easily done, not sure how the £323 becomes £317.
the £10 & £17 are not a problem, theyre 'disregards', they knock off £27, think it might be £27.10 ...off any income you have, £10 is a standard amount knocked off for a couple claiming & the £17.10 is when you have work of 30hrs or more a week.


Not sure what the £160 of benefit is, CTB is a weekly benefit but calculated over the whole year, so is that the yearly figure or your monthly instalment ?

easiest way to give you some answers would be if you can give a breakdown of figures, if you have an award letter with the applicable amount & you income that would be ideal and sounds like you might have ?

if not can you gives us figures for income, ie wages, tax credits, anything else ?

AnotherMakes3

Sorry posted and ran earlier. Upon adding again it comes to £325

Ok we have DH's weekly wage £144
Child Tax credits for 3 kids £162
Working Tax credits £ 46
Child benefit (doesnt count)
Total £352

Disregards - £27

Total weekly income £325


From CTB

Family premium £ 17.40
3 x kids (£64.99 each) £194.97
Couple £111.45

Total £323.82

Going on that we are just over £1 over.

We normally pay £200pm and with CBT we paid £44 so for that extra £1 odd its pushing us over into the no help range according to them.

HappyMJ

AnotherMakes3 wrote: »

Sorry posted and ran earlier. Upon adding again it comes to £325

Ok we have DH's weekly wage £144
Child Tax credits for 3 kids £162
Working Tax credits £ 46
Child benefit (doesnt count)
Total £352

Disregards - £27

Total weekly income £325


From CTB

Family premium £ 17.40
3 x kids (£64.99 each) £194.97
Couple £111.45

Total £323.82

Going on that we are just over £1 over.

We normally pay £200pm and with CBT we paid £44 so for that extra £1 odd its pushing us over into the no help range according to them.

Your income is £325 less the £323.82 means you are £1.18 over meaning you pay 20% of that towards your council tax benefit claim so you have to pay 23 or 24 pence a week towards your council tax.

Is hubby's weekly wage really £144? 30 hours times £6.08 is £182.40 less £5.28 tax and less £4.37 NI equals take home pay of £172.75.

Is the £27 disregard actually £27.10?

daimonde

exactly yeh, going off those figures you certainly wouldnt be out of CTB range, you'd get just about all of it....not 100% sure on the water side, my time north of the border was before having any involvement in CTB but i presume thats not covered, still big discrepancy there !

not sure of reasons it would have stopped, maybe a one off wage slip with the aforementioned bonus has been incorrectly interpreted.

at my LA, the CTB and the council tax accounts are on kinda different computers & the interface everynow and then goes wrong - unlike the national JCP computers, none of the LAs are linked & often use different software.

possibly theyve had a tax credit update thats skewed things - theres a direct interface between LAs & HMRC for this and often LAs know about changes now before customers.

and i suppose theres a slim chance a new bill for the financial year went out with no benefit but its on there now ?


there are all pretty much clutching at straws guesses though, id give them a ring & check it all out, you've got all the figures there, ask them for a breakdown of what theyre using.

sorry cant be any more help !

AnotherMakes3

Sorry he only works 24 hours now. I was assured we'd still get the £17.10 deduction though as they said they don't take the first 17.10 of our WTC into consideration.

It is all away to pot though as first of all they had missed one of our children off then we had to fill out a new form. We did that and they put his monthly wage down as weekly!

His wage is £625 per month without bonus.

What is the 20% thing? I've managed to work the rest out myself but I'm confused about the 20% thingy you mentioned.

PS thanks so much for your help

daimonde

as far as i know the £17.10 additional earnings disregard is only for 30hrs plus, dont believe its changed.

i dont think that alone would stop you qualifying though.


the calc is done by, taking your income minus any disregards, so £342 now, take off you applicable amount, the £323.82.

this gives us what they call excess income, still only about £18....this is where the 20% comes in...

20% of this excess income - roughly £3.60 - is then knocked off the benefit.
(this is the only difference between HB & CTB, 65% is used for HB)


so if the 20% figure was higher than your weekly council tax, thats the point you wouldnt qualify, but yours is what, about £160 minus the water rates ? thats v roughly £40pw so shouldnt be an issue.

AnotherMakes3

Thanks, going blind on paperwork looking through old claims etc and it seems that £27.30pw is the max CTB that we can get. Going on the govt benefit calculator we should be entitled to £17.36pw.

I have no idea how water and sewage charges are calculated though as ours are on the CT bill. Not sure if we still pay them fully or if we'd get a discount.

Either way I do believe we are entitled to something and I will be phoning on Wed when they open back up to try to get a face to face appt with an assessor.

Thanks for the help x

daimonde

im being a bit presumptuous in thinking you live in scotland ? the water rates were a clue & your signature kinda sealed it

i lived in the highlands for a while & noticed the water rates were on the council tax bill as opposed to england where they are just like gas & elec & billed by separate companies.

i didnt work in ctb back then, in fact had to claim it but dont remember how it worked, as its not part of the council tax as such as mentioned above, id be surprised if that bit didnt stay on the bill regardless of any benefit though.

definitely get in touch with them though, does sound like you're missing out, good luck !