Council Tax Question

Evelyn65

Hello and my first post, I have a question which I don't seen to be able to find an answer to regarding council tax. If I receive a reduction while working part time and receiving universal credit, the council tax was reduced and divided into 10 monthly payments. Now that I have found work I am surprised that I now have to make 5 monthly payments for the full original amount, minus the reduced rate that I paid, leaving me with a large monthly council tax payment. Is this correct? and no allowance is made, it seems that now that I have a job the whole of the council tax has to be paid but in a much shorter period of time.

calcotti

The reason that the balance has to be paid in 5 payments is because the council seek to recover the outstanding tax within the current tax year. Normally they will collect from April to January. I assume the five payments you refer to are October to January. Logically, given that you have had some help and made some payment, each remaining monthly payment will be as it would have been if the full bill had been divided into 10 originally.

You may be able to ask the council to continue the payments into March so that payment is made in 7 instalments instead of 5.


I think by law Council Tax is actually payable in full at the start of the year. Payment by instalments is a concession to help tax payers meet the bill.

CIS

I think by law Council Tax is actually payable in full at the start of the year. Payment by instalments is a concession to help tax payers meet the bill.

The money is due in full but instalments are a statutory requirement to give someone a chance to pay - those instalments can be withdrawn if not paid and then it reverts back to the amount being due in full.


If you are in England you have the statutory right to 12 instalments (or the remaining number of months of that), assuming you have not lost the right to pay by instalments. You can contact and ask to be swapped to the 12 instalments scheme but keep in mind that they must give 14 days notice of an instalment. If you were to ask now then you'd lose the September instalment (unless they offer something other than 1st of the month) and you'd get October to March, so 6 instalments.

KatrinaWaves

Evelyn65 wrote: »

Hello and my first post, I have a question which I don't seen to be able to find an answer to regarding council tax. If I receive a reduction while working part time and receiving universal credit, the council tax was reduced and divided into 10 monthly payments. Now that I have found work I am surprised that I now have to make 5 monthly payments for the full original amount, minus the reduced rate that I paid, leaving me with a large monthly council tax payment. Is this correct? and no allowance is made, it seems that now that I have a job the whole of the council tax has to be paid but in a much shorter period of time.

I’m not really sure what the issue is. What do you mean by ‘no allowance has been made’

You paid a reduced amount for the time you were on UC. Now you no longer qualify for CTR the amount is increased. You have still received the reduction on the dates you qualified.

You have paid 5 instalments at a reduced rate, and now your next 5 instalments are not reduced. What ‘allowance’ were you expecting?

Make sure you are claiming single persons discount if you are a single adult qualifying resident

WhenIam64

In some areas there is a further means-tested discount. Locally the max discount can be 100% or 80%. Each council sets its own schemes reflecting the council's wishes

Have you ask your council about what help there is over and above the single persons discount.

And once you have established the level of discount, you can have it over 12 periods instead of 10.

Also don't miss paying CT. The councils have teeth when it comes to collecting it.

KatrinaWaves

WhenIam64 wrote: »

In some areas there is a further means-tested discount. Locally the max discount can be 100% or 80%. Each council sets its own schemes reflecting the council's wishes

Have you ask your council about what help there is over and above the single persons discount.

And once you have established the level of discount, you can have it over 12 periods instead of 10.

Also don't miss paying CT. The councils have teeth when it comes to collecting it.

OP is clearly already claiming council tax reduction (the further means tested discount you reference), otherwise her working and UC would have no relevance to her council tax amount.

Evelyn65

Apologies for not making sense to you, yes I received a reduction for those months, but now I have a massive increase, as the council tax now reverts back in full and so I have to pay the total balance minus the months reductions, so I am ending up paying a lot in a short time.

KatrinaWaves

Evelyn65 wrote: »

Apologies for not making sense to you, yes I received a reduction for those months, but now I have a massive increase, as the council tax now reverts back in full and so I have to pay the total balance minus the months reductions, so I am ending up paying a lot in a short time.

It shouldnt be a massive jump, it’s now just the ‘normal’ payment. You are now paying the same as everyone rather than ‘a lot in a short time’ unless something weird has happened the time is no shorter than it was before.

Get it swapped to 12 months to give you an extra 2 months payment to bring it down in price, but there’s not really much else to say. The price you are now paying is the normal rate which will be the same for everyone who does not qualify for a means tested reduction.

[Deleted User]

You don't qualify for the reduction no more, therefore you are responsible for the CT for each month, like anyone else. All you can do is ask them to put it over the maximum months allowed.