Council Tax Discounts
Single Person’s Discount
You can claim 25% off your Council Tax if you are the only person over 18 who lives in your home. Contact us on 020 8356 3154 if you want to apply.
Disregard Discounts
You may also qualify for a discount if all but one of the residents are not counted (disregarded) for Council Tax payments. In which case, you may be able to claim a discount up to 50%.
People who may qualify for disregard discounts are:
- Most full-time students
- People who live with and care for someone else
- Young people for whom Child Benefit is payable
- People under 25 who receive training under the National Traineeship scheme
- Apprentices
- Student nurses
- Foreign language assistants
- People who leave school after 30 April and start a course of further education before 30 October of the same year
- People who are detained in prison or under the Mental Health Acts
- Patients who live in a hospital, care-home, nursing home or mental nursing home
- Residents of night shelters or hostels
- Members of religious communities who have no income or savings (for example, monks and nuns)
- Diplomats and their spouses, if not a British citizen
- People who are severely mentally impaired
- Care workers employed via a charity or local authority
If all the residents of a property are eligible to be disregarded, your Council Tax may be reduced by 50%.
If all residents are students or severely mentally impaired, the property will be exempt.
Note: People who qualify for discounts are still liable to pay the balance of the Council Tax that is due.
Students
Generally students are not liable for Council Tax. There are some exceptions to this – please contact the Council Tax department for further clarification.
Partners of students
If a student is married to someone from abroad, has a civil partner, or dependants from abroad, we may not count them for Council Tax purposes if their visa stops them working, claiming benefit or having `recourse to public funds’.
Empty properties
If no one lives in a property, you can apply for 50% off your Council Tax and, in some cases, the property may be exempt.
Page updated: 17 Mar 2010
