council tax rebate

[lcg]

hello...i was wondering if anybody could give me a little bit of information about claiming money back from my local council. mr kicker and i have realised that he qualifies as a 'severely mentally impaired' person (charming!) and that you can get a discount on your council tax. what percentage is discounted? (i'm thinking 25%, but have been unable to find out how much online) and he has had the relevant benefits since October 2009, so can we claim from that period? i know that if the shoe is on the other foot and you owe them money they will claim the maximum, but i am worried that they will turn round and refuse any back pay. if someone could give me a little advice, i'd be really grateful - we're struggling so much at the moment, so this could make a huge difference to our lives at the moment. many thanks in advance, elsie (lcg) x

[bushbaby_de]

People who have a severe mental disability aren't counted when looking at how many adults are in the home. If there are still two adults, not counting your husband, you will still pay full whack. If discounting him leaves only you, then you can have the single occupier discount, which is 25%. You can challenge a current bill on these grounds but I'm not sure how it works for previous years - you may have to give the Council a call to find out.

[bednobs]

hiya, who is mr kicker - is that your husband? do you live together, just the two of you? if that is the case you can get the single person reduction (25 % i believe)

[bednobs]

sorry, the other answer wasn't there when i started writing

[lcg]

in the household, there is me, my husband and 18 year old son who is at university. i did just ring them for a bit of information to put on the letter and i asked if they would back date and got told no! they would only do it for 30 days. i got really angry and said that if i owed them the money they would string me up for it and how were we supposed to know? the benefits agency and the council never mentioned it and i told them they were theiving litle so-and-so's. i am going to go postal if they don't give me some money back and probably going to see my solicitor too. grrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x

[bednobs]

hi lcg. I think you are on a hiding to nothing - the discount has always been available to you, you just haven't taken them up on it. They always send the info about who can claim discounts with the bill, don't they? not their fault if you didn't read it

[maclarencat]

I agree with Bednobs . They cant really go round asking every Council tax payer if they fulfil any of the requirements for benefit. They make the information available and it is up to you to apply. They do not backdate more than 30 days as there is no way they could organise their budgets if people were putting off claiming then claiming large backdated sums. I am sorry but get applied asap or you are losing more money!

[sallybb]

Even though your son is at university, where is his registered address. I remember when my daughter was at university. She didn't pay Council Tax, and had to sign a form that her C.Tax was covered under her home address.

[bushbaby_de]

SAllybb I think you must be getting confused because Council Tax relates to the property not the person. Students just have to prove they are full time students to be exempt.