council tax discount backdated 27 April 2019 at 1:30PM in Disability money matters 3 replies 1.1K views

ashpan

i have just realised that i may have been entitled to a discount on council tax whilst my son (adult) was living with me as he has a mental impairment
on reading about this on their website they say they dont backdate claims
is this legal and should i apply anyway?

CIS

ashpan wrote: »

i have just realised that i may have been entitled to a discount on council tax whilst my son (adult) was living with me as he has a mental impairment
on reading about this on their website they say they dont backdate claims
is this legal and should i apply anyway?

Providing evidence can be shown then the council should not be arbitrarily trying to restrict backdating where it it clear a discount applies. Unfortunately I do find some councils are worse than others (I'm currently dealing with a case where a council is trying to limit to 12 months maximum as policy - I will be pointing out to them why unilaterally restricting it is wrong).

Once you get past their reluctance then less than 6 years backdating is not too bad and can be argued far easier in most cases than going back more than 6 years, which can be a pain.

[Deleted User]

In my experience councils rarely back date beyond 3 months.

CIS

venison wrote: »

In my experience councils rarely back date beyond 3 months.

That is common for Council Tax Reduction but they shouldn't be doing it for Council Tax discounts, unless they can show it's because the person wasn't entitled (or they have enough evidence to suggest that was the case). Council Tax legislation itself has no limit on how long a discount can be backdated.