Council Tax Benefits
If you or a member of your household are on low income, you may qualify for Council Tax Benefit or Second Adult Rebate. Council Tax Benefit helps towards the cost of Council Tax for people who have a low income.
The Benefits service is provided by the Exchequer Services department. Details of the department's current performance can be downloaded below.
Who Can Claim?
Anyone who has to pay Council Tax for his or her home can claim. If Council Tax is included in your rent then you should claim Housing Benefit, which will cover Council Tax as well. You can claim Council Tax Benefit if you have less than £16,000 in savings. You do not have to be out of work to claim Council Tax Benefit. To calculate what you might be able to claim, visit the entitledto website. Please note that this will give you an estimate of what you might be entitled to claim and you will still have to complete and submit an application form, which can be downloaded below.
How To Claim
You must complete a Council Tax Benefit application form which can be downloaded below. It is also available from Three Rivers House and South Oxhey Area Housing Office or by telephoning the Benefits Service 01923 773138.
How Council Tax Benefit is Worked Out
If your claim is successful, the amount of Council Tax Benefit you will be entitled to depends on how much your Council Tax bill is, your net income, your household circumstances and any savings or investments you may have. You could qualify for some more benefit if you or a member of your family is disabled or if you pay for childcare whilst you are working.
Second Adult Rebate
Even if you don't qualify for Council Tax Benefit because your income is too high, you may still qualify for a reduction in your Council Tax bill if there are other people living in your household who have a low income.
For more information regarding Second Adult Rebate contact the Benefits Section on 01923 773138.
If there has been a reason which stopped or delayed you applying for Council Tax Benefit, you can ask for your claim to be backdated so that it starts from an earlier date.
The Start Date of Your Benefit Claim
Under Housing and Council Tax Benefit law your claim for benefit must be made in writing, either on a benefits application form or by letter. Normally we will start your claim from the Monday after we receive your application form or letter. It is therefore very important that you get your application form or letter to us as soon as possible because it affects the date your benefit claim will start from. If we send you an application form we will allow you 4 weeks to complete and return it. If you take longer than 4 weeks to return the form you might lose your entitlement to some of your benefits.
The Rules on Backdating Benefit
You can only ask for a backdate of benefits if there is a reason why you were unable to apply for your benefit earlier. If you disagree with the date your claim starts from for any other reason you can appeal against the decision.
For more information or to make an application for backdating a Council Tax Benefit claim, telephone the Benefits section on 01923 773138 or e-mail enquiries@threerivers.gov.uk
If anything happens during this time which might affect how much benefit you get, you must tell us immediately.
If you don't tell us about a change, and we pay you too much benefit, you may have to pay it back. You must tell us about the following changes:-
Changes to the money you get
Please tell us if:-
- you start or stop getting Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance (income based)
- you start or stop getting Family Credit
- the money you or your partner gets increases or decreases
- the money non-dependants get increases or decreases
- there are any other changes in the money people in your home get. For example, someone starts getting Disability Living Allowance
Changes in your home
Please tell us if:-
- you change your address
- the number of people in your home changes - for example, someone has a baby
- a partner comes to live with you
- a partner leaves
Other changes
Please tell us if:-
- you, or your partner, go into hospital for more than 6 weeks
- you, or your partner, become a student, or stop being a student
- the amount of savings or capital you have changes
You do not have to tell us about changes in age (for example, if one your children becomes 11 years old), as we will have this information already.
You can inform us about changes in circumstances by e-mailing enquiries@threerivers.gov.uk
Renewal of Council Tax Benefit
The maximum period that benefit can be paid for is 60 weeks. If you are working or have circumstances that are likely to change your benefit period will be shorter normally 26 - 30 weeks. The date that your current claim is due to end is shown on the letter telling you how much benefit you will receive.
If you are 60 or over, benefit can be awarded for a maximum of 5 years. This will be the case for all claims from April 2004.
A benefit renewal invitation claim form will be sent to you about 8 weeks before your claim is due for renewal. Please return this form as soon as possible before your benefit payments are due to end.
Overpayments
When we give you too much benefit, we call it an 'overpayment'. If we give you too much benefit, we will send you a letter.
The letter we send you will tell you:-
- why we gave you too much benefit
- how much the overpayment is
- if you have to pay back the amount
- how you can appeal if you think this is wrong
In most cases we will send you a revised Council Tax bill, and you will usually have to pay more Council Tax.
Benefit Fraud
You can download a Benefit Fraud Referral Form below. This can be used to report suspected fraudulent benefit claims.