Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction

Council Tax Reduction

Council Tax Reduction is a local scheme designed to help households on low incomes to pay their council tax. It is not linked to National Insurance contributions.

• If you are working age you must have less than £8,000 in capital, savings, shares and property. The capital limit is £16,000 if you are of pension age unless you are aged 60 or over and receive the 'guaranteed credit' of Pension Credit.
• We calculate your reduction using your household's income and savings and compare this to what the government says your family needs to live on.
• For claimants who are not in one of the protected groups below, your Council Tax Reduction award is reduced by 20%
  • Lone parents with children under the age of 5
  • Those eligible for severe disability premium or enhanced disability premium
  • Those receiving War Pension or War Widows Pension
  • Pensioners
• We then reduce your bill by a further £150 or the remaining balance, whichever is lower.

Housing Benefit

Housing Benefit is a national welfare benefit designed to help households on low incomes to pay their rent. It is not linked to National Insurance contributions.

You must:

• rent your home. This includes boarders and people living in hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation
• have less than £16,000 in capital, savings, shares and property, unless you are aged 60 or over and receive the 'guaranteed credit' of Pension Credit

You may not qualify if:

• you live with a member of your immediate family and pay them rent or board
• you are a student. Except for in certain circumstances as the government expects students to use their loan to pay rent
• we suspect you have created an arrangement to take advantage of the scheme

We calculate Housing Benefit using:

• your household's size and circumstances
• your household's income, savings and capital
• the amount of rent you pay
• bedroom allowance (if appropriate)
• Local housing allowance rates (if appropriate)

We usually pay your Housing Benefit:

• direct to your rent account if you are a council tenant
• direct to your bank account every 2 weeks if you are not a council tenant. If you do not have a bank account we send you a cheque every two weeks.

In some circumstances, we can make payments direct to your landlord. Please contact us if you want to discuss who we should pay benefit to:

• Benefit contacts

You are responsible for making up any shortfall between your Housing Benefit and your rent.

If you disagree with our decisions, you can appeal. Your appeal must be in writing and made within one calendar month from the date you received your benefit decision notice.

For more information: Housing Benefit appeals

• We use Local housing allowance rates in our Housing Benefit calculations for tenants renting from a private landlord.
• They represent the maximum amount of benefit we can pay.
• The LHA rate we use to calculate your benefit isn’t necessarily the same as the number of bedrooms in your home. You need to calculate how many bedrooms the government says your household needs to identify the LHA rate you’re entitled to.

There are two different local housing allowance areas in Kirklees:

• Kirklees (covers 96% of our area)
• Bradford and South Dales (covers parts of Birkenshaw and a small area around it)

Local Housing Allowance Rates from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

Area	1 bed shared	1 bed self-contained	2 bedroom	3 bedroom	4 bedroom
Kirklees	£56.50	£85.00	£103.56	£126.58	£162.25
Bradford and South Dales	£68.30	£80.55	£103.56	£120.82	£141.53

A non-dependant is someone over 18 who normally lives with you but doesn't pay rent. This could be a friend or member of the family such as grown up children or parents living with you.

We make these deductions whether the non-dependant contributes to your household or not.

The deductions are fixed amounts based on your non-dependant's gross weekly income.

Non-dependant deductions start from the date the adult moves in or turns 18, but there are exemptions.

It is your responsibility to tell the council if a non-dependant lives with you.

You will have to repay any Housing Benefit overpayments if you do not tell the council about non-dependants.

• Your council tax reduction bill will be recalculated to take into account non-dependant deductions.

Non-dependant deductions do not apply if you or your partner are:

• registered blind
• receiving attendance allowance
• receiving the care component of Disability Living Allowance (at any rate)
• receiving the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment

No deductions are made if the non-dependant is:

• aged under 18
• a full time student
• has been in hospital for 52 weeks or more
• a member of the Armed Forces who is absent while on operations

• Is available for people of pension age only.
• The scheme is designed to help you with your council tax bill if you have another adult living with you (but not your partner or someone who pays rent to you), who is on a low income.
• Apply using the Housing Benefit and council tax reduction application form

• Housing Benefit is reduced for tenants of working age, who rent a home from the council or another social landlord, which is larger than their household needs.
• Benefit is reduced by 14% for one spare bedroom, and 25% for two or more spare bedrooms.
• Some family members are expected to share bedrooms depending on age and circumstances.

Download our Under occupation guidelines

• We will reduce your council tax bill by the level of reduction you are entitled to.
• You are responsible for making up any shortfall between the level of reduction you receive and the actual amount of your bill.
• You must tell us straight away if you have any changes in your circumstances which may affect your entitlement
• Legislation* allows councils to impose a penalty of £70 where a person has negligently made an incorrect statement in their Council Tax Reduction application or where a person negligently fails to notify a change of circumstances when required to do so.
• * The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Detection of Fraud & Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013. The Local Government Finance Act 1992 (as amended) (Sections 14A, 14B & 14C)

If you think your reduction is wrong you must write to us explaining why you think the reduction is wrong.

For more information: Council Tax reductions appeals

Tell us straightaway if:

• any of your children leave school or leave home
• anyone moves into or out of your home including lodgers and subtenants
• your income or the income of anyone living with you, including benefits, changes
• your capital, savings or investments change
• you or anyone living with you becomes a student, goes on a Youth Training Scheme, goes into hospital or nursing home, goes into prison, or gets, changes or leaves a job
• your rent changes
• you move: tell us about a change in address
• you or your partner are going to be away from home for more than a month
• you receive any decision from the Home Office; or
• anything you have told us about changes

Tell us about a change in circumstances