Bizarre Council Tax Bill

Rafael89

My council tax is In the region of £1150. Minus a single occupancy discount that puts me at a little under £900 (for ease let's say 890). My end of Jan payment covered the last of my outstanding amount. Recently I've stopped becoming eligible for the single occupancy discount, so I filled in a change of circumstance form online to inform the council.

I was under the impression that the effect this would have would be that I would lose the 25% discount for the period starting from when I became ineligible to the end of the tax year, and I would get a new bill asking for this amount. Is this assumption correct? (This is the question, you could stop reading now )

So rather than being fully paid off I'd now owe what comes out at, again roughly, £50.

I've just received the new bill and it says:
Single occupancy discount adjustment: £50
Total annual amount: £1150
Minus Total paid to date: -£890

Total owed (and due in one payment by the end of the month): £310

CIS

Your single person discount (SPD) should be withdrawn from the date you became ineligible up to the end of the year. Your SPD works out at 25% person month, so (£1150/12) * .25 = £23.96. so for for 2 months you're correct in thinking it should be around £50.00

I can't quite understand what they've done. Can you post an image of the part of the demand notice showing the charge ?

antrobus

Rafael89 wrote: »

....I've just received the new bill and it says:
Single occupancy discount adjustment: £50
Total annual amount: £1150
Minus Total paid to date: -£890

....

A single occupancy discount adjustment of £50 is about two month's worth of discount. Best guess; someone has recalculated the bill on the basis that you were only eligible for the discount for two months of the year, rather than on the basis that you were ineligible for the discount for two months of the year.

Rafael89

CIS wrote: »

Your single person discount (SPD) should be withdrawn from the date you became ineligible up to the end of the year. Your SPD works out at 25% person month, so (£1150/12) * .25 = £23.96. so for for 2 months you're correct in thinking it should be around £50.00

I can't quite understand what they've done. Can you post an image of the part of the demand notice showing the charge ?

Sorry, I'm not allowed to post the image - I get the message that as a new user I'm not allowed to post links.

Basically they've charged me what I expected and then on top of that have asked for the full 25% discount back. Like they've inadvertently left out the line that originally said "-25% discount"

Rafael89

antrobus wrote: »

A single occupancy discount adjustment of £50 is about two month's worth of discount. Best guess; someone has recalculated the bill on the basis that you were only eligible for the discount for two months of the year, rather than on the basis that you were ineligible for the discount for two months of the year.

I see what you're getting at but what they've actually asked for is essentially 14 months' of discount. My total bill now is greater than the starting bill (pre-discount).

CIS

It's possible they ended it as of Jan 14 instead of Jan 15 but it's only a guess - I've seen it happen before.

Unless your council is one that shows a full breakdown of all adjustments on the demand notice then you haven't got much chance of getting a full answer without checking with the council.