universal credit and council tax deductions

wizardman_2

dear martin, The first £335.00 of your take-home pay doesn't affect your Universal Credit monthly amount. Every £1.00 you earn in take-home pay over this amount reduces your Universal Credit by 55 pence.
the earnings above are disregarded for benefit purposes so you get to keep a good amount of your full take home pay,
the question I have is this:- when this is worked out the information is provided for council tax purposes, and the benefit we receive in council tax reduction is reduced by the full take home pay, they do not allow the same benefit disregard as universal credit?   this does not seem right to me as they are giving it you in one hand and taking it off you in the other, so you are not really getting to keep the amount of money they say you can. could you look into this for me please? and if there are any details you want then please ask.    regards wayne      

poppy12345

Martin doesn't post on the forums. Your council tax reduction will be calculated using your UC details. The 55% deduction has nothing to do with CTR. The more you earn the less CTR you'll be entitled to.

Spoonie_Turtle

poppy12345 said:

Martin doesn't post on the forums. Your council tax reduction will be calculated using your UC details. The 55% deduction has nothing to do with CTR. The more you earn the less CTR you'll be entitled to.

I believe this may vary by council.

wizardman_2

thanks for your replies, i'm aware UC take into account the more you earn after their allowances and deduct this,
however without earning anything, the council tax rebate is usually full, but earning above what UC allow you to keep reduces your UC benefit and this is not taken into consideration by council tax benefit,
for a rough example:-
if my UC payment was £1000 a month inc housing allowances
and I earned nothing in that period then there would be no council tax to pay, and the £1000 is mine to live on and to pay rent.
but say i earned £500 in a payment period and UC took £200 from my benefit for this £500 earnings then this would leave me with a benefit drop of £200 giving me £800 instead of the usual £1000 UC
then my £500 earnings are declared by UC to council tax benefit! 
what about the £200 deduction from my £1000 UC payment?
it seams either way it works out that any deductions in usual benefit which they allow are not being taken into consideration by council tax benefits?
does anyone understand where i'm coming from with this in the above rough example?
so my complete income that month is £1300? £800 UC after the £200 deduction and £500 earnings,
are council tax benefit counting my £1000 normal UC allowance and adding the £500 to it making income of £1500?
or do they see only £300 extra income after the £200 deduction of UC?
I'm not sure what difference it makes to the benefit but i would like to know how it all works out as your supposed to be better off in work and that why UC give you some of the money to keep, but if that money is being deducted by council tax then your not much better off after all? and could be worse of depending on the earned income thresholds.

calcotti

There is no one answer because each council can vary the rules for CTR (for working age claimants).