Increase in Council Tax when moving to UC

Bladez80

Hi there, 

Me & my wife were recently told to move from Income Support to UC. In doing so, I have noticed that our monthly Council Tax payments have dramatically increased from £15 a month to £61. 

Apparently this is due to going from weekly payments to a larger monthly payment and our reduction was changed from 90% benefit to 60%.

This doesn't sound right to me as we are still receiving the same amount of monthly income and have had no further changes within our family. Is there workings accurate or do I need to question this with them?

Many thanks

Ayr_Rage

Councils determine how much relief they give so speak to them.

As many are now on the verge of bankruptcy their discretionary reductions have changed.

MoodyMand45

I moved from JSA to UC some time ago and i went from paying no Council Tax on Job Seekers Allowance to now paying £47 per month on single person Universal Credit. UC is about £35 more than Jobseekers so i am about £12 worse off.
I contacted both Citizens Advice and Welfare Rights but both could not really help me.

HillStreetBlues

Some councils treat IR legacy benefits a lot better than UC when determining council tax reduction.

KxMx

Each local authority has different rules for Council Tax Reduction. Often UC is treated differently to legacy benefits. 

Also many areas have revised the rules this financial year due to being so strapped for money. 

chapea

My local council Sunderland have radically changed their council tax support help this year

upto this year applicable amounts which weren’t counted before working out what you needed to pay have changed  they are still giving allowances to people on UC, allowances as before for child elements and also the rent amounts received on universal credit so all these amounts are deducted from earnings before working out what you need pay from balance

they have took away any disability or caring elements (applicable amounts) which have been allowed for years so anyone like me now gets no help (have a mortgage not rent) 

my new bill a few weeks ago has gone up from the usual £33/34 per month to pay to the full amount of £130. Quite a shock with no warning especially as I am on a low occupational pension and carers allowance which is about £80 a week under minimum wage 

Newcad

HillStreetBlues said:

Some councils treat IR legacy benefits a lot better than UC when determining council tax reduction.

KxMx said:

.. Often UC is treated differently to legacy benefits.

Legacy IR benefits such as IR ESA give 'Automatic Passporting' to the maximum Council Tax Reduction available from a council.

UC doesn't give that Passporting and so any CTR that you may be entitled to because of low income, etc. has to be calculated instead, and (depending on the council) that calculation may not give the maximum reduction anymore.

Uriziel

The point of UC is to make benefits better for people who work or work more and reduce benefits for people that work less or not at all. The government does not admit this but it is very obvious. If you think that this is wrong I would visit your council and let them know that it was lower before and see what they say.

HillStreetBlues

Newcad said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Some councils treat IR legacy benefits a lot better than UC when determining council tax reduction.

KxMx said:

.. Often UC is treated differently to legacy benefits.

Legacy IR benefits such as IR ESA give 'Automatic Passporting' to the maximum Council Tax Reduction available from a council.

UC doesn't give that Passporting and so any CTR that you may be entitled to because of low income, etc. has to be calculated instead, and (depending on the council) that calculation may not give the maximum reduction anymore.

Councils don't have to treat them differently, some councils there will be no change, others when people migrate will be worse off.

born_again

KxMx said:

Each local authority has different rules for Council Tax Reduction. Often UC is treated differently to legacy benefits. 

Also many areas have revised the rules this financial year due to being so strapped for money. 

Given the only change this year for us, is one reaching SPA.
We have gone from paying a small amount to not paying anything, due to 100% council tax support.

All info was provided by UC to council. We have no interaction with council.

Newcad

HillStreetBlues said:

Councils don't have to treat them differently, ....

Currrently they do, by law.

The legacy benefits are passported by law to full CTR, UC isn't.

Admitted that the councils could choose to treat UC LCW(RA) the same as if it were passported like IR ESA is, but without that force of law then why should they treat then differently than normal and calculate your CTR entitlement from your income?
(So when legacy IR has gone the councils will just do the calculation for everybody).

Yes it means that our wonderful new 'one size fits nobody' benefits can in some cases be less generous than legacy benefits, but that's hardly breaking news is it?