Martin Lewis reveals how to claim discount on council tax after ‘awful April’ rises Source: Good Morning Britain, ITV
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So, the first thing I'd say on council tax is up to 400,000 people in England and Scotland are in the wrong band to hire band.
00:06I launched a check and challenge system on this in 2007.
00:10People can go, it's available, lots of people can go and read that one online.
00:13Effectively, what you need to do is go on to voa.gov.uk to check your council tax bands and neighbours in identical property,
00:20or if you're in Scotland, saa.gov.uk.
00:23If you are in a higher band than neighbours in identical properties,
00:26then you need to work out what band you would have been in 1991.
00:30If that shows you're in too high a band, then you need to look at going forward to get your band lowered.
00:34But equally importantly, many people are missing out on discounts.
00:37There's the single adult discount, which gives you 25% off.
00:41So, anybody who's...
00:45Just taking out the voices in your ear.
00:46Yes, because I can't do this and have someone talk to me at the same time.
00:48No, I'll just listen to them, don't worry.
00:50So, you've got 25% off if you're a single adult.
00:53And that means if you're living with children or you're living with full-time students,
00:56all of that, you're still a single adult, you still get 25% off.
00:59Crucially, students living together get a discount.
01:01The one people don't talk about is the severe mental impairment discount for council tax.
01:06Massively under-publicised. Yes.
01:08So, if somebody has a lack of social functioning,
01:12severe dementia will do it, severe Parkinson's, severe stroke are typical examples.
01:17Then, and as well as, if they're eligible for certain benefits, they can be disregarded for council tax,
01:21which effectively means if they're the only person living in the house, they don't pay council tax.
01:25If they're living with one other adult, that other adult gets a single-person discount.