Council Tax money back?

sinclasc

Hi all,
I came out of work on the 9th of March, and have just found a new job (starting on 8th May).

I didn't do anything regarding claiming council tax when I lost my job (but have received JSA). Is it too late to do anything now - i.e. what is the chance they will give me money back (paid) for the last month?

LindseyM

You can still claim for CTB and ask them to backdate your claim. You'll likely get 4 weeks backdated but only more than that if you have special circumstances why you didn't claim before. Do it asap as the claim goes from the date of first contact.

HTH

Eager_Elephant

Hi sinclasc,

More and more Local Authorities are getting stricter with regard to backdating. My Local Authority used to grant backdating all the time but now they are a lot stricter and you must have evidence to support why you can't make a claim.

A good reason is not that you did not know you could claim and neither is that you did not know you were going to be out of work for 2 months - although I would say by all means try it.

When you say you claimed JSA did they not give you the option of claiming HB or CTB at the same time? You may already have completed the form and not realised.

Maybe ring the Local Authority and check.

EE

suelees1

If you claimed JSA via a Jobcentre Plus call centre then this should have been accepted as a claim for CTB. This new way of claiming is known in DWP parlance as CMS (Customer Management System) and one call should be sufficient for claims to JSA, IS, IB, HB and CTB. The call centre operators have a script to go through which should result in them identifying what you want to claim. If it didn't then you have grounds for appeal.