Council Tax Support/Reduction

Benefits, finances and funding
1

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has experience with having to provide bank statements for council tax support/reduction?

My father in law is hitting retirement/state pension age by the end of the month and they wrote to him a few weeks ago wanting to recalculate his council tax support/reduction and asking him to fill out a bunch of forms. He sent them all back with his benefit entitlement letters, full PIP and full state pension and assumed that was enough.

He never had to provide bank statements for it every year that he was claiming ESA, and the letter he received is very odd too, as it states they’ve “reassessed his claim already” but are still requesting bank statements.

Seems odd to me that they’d be asking for this kind of information, especially as I thought CTS/CTR was related to you benefit entitlement, not your disposable income.

Has anyone else here found themselves having to send in bank statements to get reassessed?

Thanks.

2

Did your father in law actually speak on the phone before sending his documents.

From the above website

Sending evidence with your application
Your local council’s website should say what evidence you need to send. For example, you might have to send evidence of your income and savings.

If you need more time to get the evidence, write ‘evidence to follow’ on the application form and send it as soon as possible.

After you apply, your local council might contact you and say you need to send more evidence. You should normally send extra evidence within 1 month. Tell your local council if:

you can’t get the evidence they’ve asked for
you need more time - for example if you’re ill

3

Unfortunately they’ve every right to look at your disposable income. If savings are too high they can impact on entitlement, for example. Council Tax support is a benefit and subject to similar rules as other income-related benefits.