Council Tax Support

If you are liable for Council Tax and live at the property you can apply for Council Tax Support. You will only receive Council Tax Support if after receiving your application we assess your income as low enough to qualify.

You can’t get Council Tax Support if you

are not the householder, or the person responsible to pay council tax
are of working age and have more than £6,000 in savings (from April 2026 this will change to £10,000)
are of pension age and have more than £16,000 in savings, unless you receive guaranteed Pension Credit
are excluded from receiving public funds, due to your status in the UK

For Council Tax Support, pension age means anyone who has reached the qualifying age for Pension Credit.

Most asylum seekers and people sponsored to be in the UK can’t get Council Tax Support.

Full-time students can’t usually get Council Tax Support, but may get a student Council Tax discount.

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Following public consultation, it has been decided to change how we calculate Council Tax Support for working age applicants from April 2026.

A summary of how Council Tax Support will be assessed follows, this cannot cover every detail but will give an overview of how it works.

In order to be awarded Council Tax Support you will need to first apply and we can backdate this application by up to three months.

Capital limit

The capital limit of the scheme is £10,000. If your capital is above this amount you will not be entitled to any Council Tax Support.

If you are in receipt of Universal Credit, we will use assessment of your capital made by the DWP when calculating your Universal Credit award.

Band limit when calculating an award

Council Tax Support is limited to the value of a Council Tax Band D property. If you are in a property in a higher band, we will limit the maximum award as if your property was band D instead.

Non-dependent deductions

There is a standard deduction of £10 per week for a non-dependent or non-dependent couple.

No deduction will be made if the applicant, or their partner if they have one, are in receipt of adult disability payment, armed forced independence payment, attendance allowance (or a state benefit treated as such), disability living allowance care component, personal independence payment daily living component, person age disability payment.

No deduction will be made if the applicant, or their partner if they have one, are registered are severely sight impaired.

No deduction will be made if the non-dependant is less than 18 years of age, is a full time student, is a member of the armed forces away on operations, is receiving state pension credit, income support, income-based jobseekers allowance, income-related employment and support allowance or entitled to Universal Credit and does not have any earned income, or is a disregarded person for the purposes of a council tax discount.

Award bands

The level of award is based on what your income is based on your household and the income we take into account.

Income band	Single	Couple	Family with 1 child	Family with 2+ children	Discount
Band 1	£0.00 to £109.00	£0.00 to £164.00	£0.00 to £246.00	£0.00 to £327.00	100%
Band 2	£109.01 to £184.00	£164.01 to £239.00	£246.01 to £321.00	£327.01 to £402.00	75%
Band 3	£184.01 to £259.00	£239.01 to £314.00	£321.01 to £396.00	£402.01 to £477.00	50%
Band 4	£259.01 to £334.00	£314.01 to £389.00	£396.01 to £471.00	£477.01 to £552.00	25%

What incomes are taken into account

In this scheme the following incomes are used to determine which band an applicant falls in:

earnings
self-employed earnings
Universal Credit and an applicant’s income as assessed by the DWP (this will have a number of adjustments applied to it)
State retirement pension and equivalents
private pensions and annuities
any rental income
voluntary or charitable payments
maintenance payments not received in respect of a child
insurance payments against loss of income (this does not include insurance payments to cover mortgage payments)
any payments from overseas except those equivalent to a UK disability benefit.

In receipt of Universal Credit and not working

This will place you into Band 1 and you will be awarded 100% if your capital is not above the capital limit of £10,000.

This award will still be limited to a band D and subject to any non-dependant deduction that would apply.

This accounts for the majority of our working age applicants currently.

In receipt of Universal Credit and working

The award will be based on where your household and income fall within the award bands.

To get a weekly figure from your Universal Credit incomes we will multiply the monthly award by 12 and then divide by 52.

From your Universal Credit entitlement, we will deduct amounts for Housing Element, Disabled Child Element, Childcare Element, Carer Element and the Limited Capability for Work Element included in the assessment of your award. We will also deduct any amount for transitional protection. These deductions can only reduce the Universal Credit to nil.

Not receiving Universal Credit

If you are receiving income related Employment and Support Allowance you will be given a Band 1 award, and any capital will be fully disregarded.

If you are not entitled to Universal Credit and do not receive income related Employment and Support Allowance, we will use the incomes we take into account and award any entitlement based on where you are placed in the award bands.

If you are working and paying childcare costs then we may also allow a disregard from your earnings based on how much childcare costs you pay, this is subject to the rules in the scheme and limited to up to £175 for one child and £300 if paying for childcare for two of more children.

Kent County Council Care Leavers aged 21 to 24

If you are a KCC Care Leaver aged 21 to 24 and your award would normally fall within band 2, 3 or 4 we will instead award you as if you were in Band 1.

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You should apply as soon as you think you may be entitled to help. It is important that your application form is handed in as soon as possible, if you delay you may lose out.

We should pay your award within 14 days of getting all the information we need to work out your award. However, applications are often delayed because we are waiting for information.

We can normally only pay your award from the Monday following the date we receive your application. We can treat your application as being made from the date you ask for a form from us if we receive your fully completed application form within one month of sending it to you.

If entitled, we will send you a revised Council Tax bill reduced by your Council Tax Support award.

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You need to tell us straight away about any change that could affect your Council Tax Support. You need to complete a form or tell us in writing and provide proof of the change.

Tell us about your change

You must tell us even if you have told another agency, for example the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or the Pension Service.

Find out more about changes

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Please try to tell us before you move but if you can’t, tell us as soon after the move as you can.

Tell us about your move

Before you move, you can check how much Council Tax Support you could get using our online benefits calculator.

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April 2026 to March 2027

For working age, a standard deduction of £10 per week will be taken from your entitlement for each adult that is living with you (certain exceptions apply).

For pension age the deduction is based on the table below:

Non-dependant income	Deduction per week £
On Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Universal Credit (without earnings), income-related Employment and Support Allowance or State Pension Credit	Nil
Aged 18 or over and in remunerative work:
– gross income less than £279.00	5.20
– gross income between £279.00 and £484.99	10.60
– gross income between £485.00 and £604.99	13.30
– gross income £605.00 or more	15.95

April 2025 to March 2026

Someone aged 18 or over who lives with you may affect how much Council Tax Support you get because they are expected to pay towards the Council Tax.

A non-dependant is normally any adult who lives with you and is not your partner. In some cases we take a set amount from your Council Tax Support based on their income. This is called a non-dependant deduction.

The non-dependant deduction is taken from the maximum Council Tax Support before we work out how much help we can give you.

Non-dependant deductions April 2024 to March 2025

Non-dependant income	Deduction per week £
On Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Universal Credit (without earnings), income-related Employment and Support Allowance or State Pension Credit	Nil
Aged 18 or over and working an average of 16 hours each week or on Universal Credit with earnings (the income from Universal Credit and earnings will be combined):
– gross income less than £256.00	4.90
– gross income between £256.00 and £444.99	10.05
– gross income between £445.00 and £553.99	12.60
– gross income £554.00 or more	15.10
– Others aged 18 or over	4.90

Non-dependant deductions April 2023 to March 2024

Non-dependant income	Deduction per week £
On Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Universal Credit (without earnings), income-related Employment and Support Allowance or State Pension Credit	Nil
Aged 18 or over and working an average of 16 hours each week or on Universal Credit with earnings (the income from Universal Credit and earnings will be combined):
– gross income less than £236.00	4.60
– gross income between £236.00 and £409.99	9.40
– gross income between £410.00 and £510.99	11.80
– gross income £511.00 or more	14.15
– Others aged 18 or over	4.60

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When we’ve made a decision about your Council Tax Support, we will write to tell you what you’re entitled to.

You can ask us to look at our decision again, if you think we’re wrong. You should do this within one month of the date on our decision letter and send any extra information or proof that may support your case.

Find out more about what to do if you disagree

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