Discounts for people who aren't included (Council Tax)

Some people are disregarded for Council Tax purposes. This means that even though they may normally live with you, we will not count them when we decide how many people (aged 18 or over) live in your property.

We may be able to give you a Council Tax discount if someone in your home is:

• a student
• under 18 years old
• a care leaver under 25 years old
• in prison or held somewhere else by the authorities
• severely mentally impaired
• someone for whom child benefit is still payable / school leaver
• an apprentice or youth training trainee
• a hospital patient
• a patient in a care or nursing home
• a carer
• a resident of a night shelter / hostel
• a member of a religious community
• linked to visiting forces or international headquarters
• the spouse or dependant of a student who is not a British citizen where that spouse/dependant  is prevented by the terms under which they entered the UK from taking paid employment or from claiming benefits.

If you have other people living with you and you think they could be disregarded, please contact us and we can see if you would be entitled to a discount. We may ask for evidence that someone falls into one of these groups unless we can obtain proof from another source.

How much will the discount be?

We can reduce your bill by 25% or 50%, depending on how many people we count as disregarded.

If we count only one person as living in your property with the others disregarded, we can give you a discount of 25%.

If we count nobody as living in your property as everyone is disregarded we can give you a discount 50%.

For example:

• John lives in a house he owns. His sister Jenny and her son Jeremy live with him.
• John is 40 years old and is disabled.
• Jenny is 40 years old too and is John's carer.
• Jeremy is 18 but is still in school and Jenny receives Child Benefit for him.

There are 3 adults (over 18) living in this property. However, for Council Tax purposes Jenny would be disregarded as she is John's carer and Jeremy is disregarded as Child Benefit is paid for him.

John is the only person taken into account for Council Tax purposes and so would be entitled to a 25% discount. He might also be entitled to a disabled person's reduction depending on his circumstances.

Applying for a discount

Please contact us and we will tell you what you need to do.

You must continue to pay your current bill. If a discount is granted, we will make periodic checks that the discount should remain in place including checks with outside organisations such as credit agencies.

Please remember: if circumstances relating to the discount change you must report them to us immediately.