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Council Tax Benefits - New Claims

How do I make a claim?

Council Tax Benefit is payable in respect of the family. The term family includes single claimants, lone parents and married or unmarried couples with or without children. The family must occupy the property as their home and be liable to pay Council Tax.

There are three routes for claiming Council Tax Benefit:

1.) Together with a claim for income support or jobseeker's allowance (income based);
2.) By direct application to the Local Authority. 
3.) By completing a CMS application form over the telephone with the Job Centre Plus Offices.

Where the claim is made direct to the Local Authority entitlement generally begins on the Monday following receipt of the claim, even if a claim is received on a Monday.  However, a claim may be backdated for a maximum of 52 weeks from when a backdate request is made, where the claimant can demonstrate 'good cause' as to why the claim was not made earlier.

You can request an application form in person or over the telephone and providing you return the application form within one month of requesting it then your claim will commence from the date that you requested it.

It is important that you complete and return the claim form to us at the address shown above as soon as possible.

If you do not have all the proof that we have asked you for on the form straight away you still need to return the form to us. If you delay sending the form to us, you could lose benefit.
 

What is Second Adult Rebate?

As well as a Council Tax Benefit, there is also the possibility of being paid a Second Adult rebate if you do not have a partner, or the partner is 'not counted' for Council Tax purposes.

Second Adult rebate is based on the income and circumstances of other adults (not including your partner) who live in your household.

This may be awarded if your income is too high to get normal Council Tax Benefit but another adult in your household has a low income for example receives Income Support.

The maximum Second Adult rebate that can be awarded is restricted to 25% of your total Council Tax bill.

Where you have applied for both Council Tax Benefit and Second Adult rebate we will automatically work out and award whichever Benefit results in the highest award. However, you can apply for Second Adult rebate only if you wish.