Loosing council tax reduction due to migration to UC

Polarbearmarsh

Hi everyone, any help here would be appreciated. I recently received a migration notice to move from ESA to UC (I also get PIP enhanced on both components). I made my claim and I now receive both ESA and UC (UC reduced by ESA pound for pound). I am in the limited work and work related activity group. I have been told I no longer qualify for council tax reduction. Apparently my ESA is now contribution based and so all my ESA and UC is counted as earned income putting me over the applicable amount (which I'm told is about £111). Any advice on dealing with this would be appreciated. I don't know if (or even how) I should try to change to just UC or if there are other options. My bill has gone up around £60 month because of this. Thank you for reading and any advice you can offer.

KxMx

Each local authority runs a different scheme for Council Tax Reduction, so it's very hard to advise on individual cases from here.

Unfortunately some areas seem to treat UC differently to legacy benefits. 

You could try a local trained benefits advisor:

https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits

TimeLord1

Unsure what you were paying before ? But as above all councils are different.  Also if you had savings that could affect it.  I would be inclined to seek some advice from Citizens Advice to make sure it's correct. Most likely it is as rules are different but worth getting a better detailed explanation. But lot's of people moving over have found the entitlement is less than legacy rules and entitlement.

TimeLord1

Also pay any installments for the council tax, you can get it back if it's an error but don't delay waiting to hear because of interest added to the debt owed. Have you also spoken to UC and the council?

KxMx

UC won't be able to help as CTR is nothing to do with them. 

TimeLord1

KxMx said:

UC won't be able to help as CTR is nothing to do with them. 

Yes I fully understand that but they must've communicated with the council to let them know the outcome of his claim, for the council to revise his council tax.  But the individual councils are very different to how they treat people.

TimeLord1

What caused your migration notice if your ESA is all contribution related and you don't mention housing benefit. Was you receiving disability income guarantee also ?

born_again

TimeLord1 said:

KxMx said:

UC won't be able to help as CTR is nothing to do with them. 

Yes I fully understand that but they must've communicated with the council to let them know the outcome of his claim, for the council to revise his council tax.  But the individual councils are very different to how they treat people.

They certainly do as we got council tax rebate, despite not applying.
But as we know not all councils are equal. 

KxMx

TimeLord1 said:

What caused your migration notice if your ESA is all contribution related and you don't mention housing benefit. Was you receiving disability income guarantee also ?

Previous ESA IR +CB turns into UC & New Style ESA after migration. 
UC replaces the IR & CB converts automatically into NS ESA. 

Polarbearmarsh

Hi, thanks for all the help. I have an update but first I'll answer the questions, the council tax for the household (myself and a joint tenant) the total monthly bill was £33 now gone up to £94. I am paying in installments as set by my council tax bill last year but am now behind due to the council back dating the change. They will amend my direct debit to what is owed. The migration was due to the ending of legacy benefits, I was recieving income based ESA. I was recieving housing allowance which is now included in Universal credit.

Now for the update, my local council is Bradford so if anyone else has this issue with the same council maybe this will help. According to the council advisor (and internet searches) New style ESA is only contribution based and so the assumption is that you are or were working. They advised I call universal credit. The universal credit advisor told me they couldn't help and I would need to call ESA. For anyone who needs the same help, the phone lines for ESA are automated, I used the query "information about an ESA claim" which got me through pretty quickly. They first advised I claim council tax reduction through UC ( I challenged that and was told it could be covered by the guarantee that migration would not leave you worse off??). I asked why I was now on contribution based as I have been out of work over 15 years. Apparently some ESA claimants are now being moved to New style ESA (if they were on certain benefits and had enough national insurance contributions). I asked if I could close the ESA claim without it effecting my UC claim. I was told there would be no effect other than not getting the ESA payments every 2 weeks. As ESA was deducted £/£ I should still receive the same amount but just in a lump sum each month.

I hope that helps anyone in the same boat. I will update in a few days when the claim is fully closed and UC updated. Thanks again.

Newcad

What happens is -

When you are getting IR ESA (or CB ESA with IR ESA premiums) you are "passported" automatically to the full amount of Council Tax Relief (CTR) that applies in your circumstances. That is set in law.

When you migrate to UC that automatic set-in-law "passporting" no longer applies- Instead your council has to calculate if you are due any CTR on income grounds, and if so then how much.

It is that change from being 'set-in-law' to being a calculation that can mean that you now may have to pay some Council Tax.

Or maybe not - as said every council is allowed to have different rules about the calculation.