Council tax benefits on UC

danjackson2021

Is it automatic you get council tax benefits when on UC or do you have to apply for it?

marcia_

 You must apply directly to your local council and it will be assessed on your income 

calcotti

No it is not. You need to apply to your local authority for Council Tax Reduction. In some areas you will be asked as part of a UC application if you also wish to apply for CTR and if you say yes the local authority will be notified.

danjackson2021

Thanks

What if you were already getting UC but income went down so automatically you UC goes up?

would your council tax element automatically go back up?

fatbelly

You have to inform your council of your change of income. Council Tax Support was a benefit not brought into Universal Credit, due to the government's 'localisation' agenda.

calcotti

fatbelly said:

You have to inform your council of your change of income. 

Not necessarily. Many councils now take information for CTR from DWP UC information. A claimant therefore does not need to inform the council each time their income changes, the CTR will be adjusted based on the UC feed.
However a claim for Car must be made.

tifo

calcotti said:

Many councils now take information for CTR from DWP UC information. A claimant therefore does not need to inform the council each time their income changes, the CTR will be adjusted based on the UC feed.

They reduce your council tax support when your income goes up, don't know yet if they'll increase it if your income goes down.

calcotti

tifo said: They reduce your council tax support when your income goes up, don't know yet if they'll increase it if your income goes down.

If it goes down when income goes up then it will go up when income goes down. 

danjackson2021

Yes they do it automatically these days

calcotti

danjackson2021 said:

Yes they do it automatically these days

I don't know whether that is true for all councils (and even when applicable will only apply for those claiming UC too).