Council tax refund £150

[AlternativelyWired]

Please could someone explain this to me? Is it £150 credited to your bank account or does it get deducted from your council tax bill?

The council tax system is broken. My house is a £300k house, if that, and I’m an E. The flat I rented in London is worth half a mil and it’s a band D.

Wow that's crazy about the London house! 300k seems like a lot to me! (To qualify for low income I mean).

I had been about to post qondering if any London houses would qualify but it seems so.

Yeah, the council tax banding system is definitely broken. My house is in the south east, worth quite a bit, but only band c or d I think. Doesn’t make sense. I heard years ago they were going to do a massive rebanding but guess it would be too controversial.

I've just had an email from our council and it says that
"On top of this rebate, discretionary funding will also be provided to support vulnerable people and individuals on low incomes that do not pay Council Tax, or that pay Council Tax for properties in Bands E-H."

So worth looking out for that if you won't get the rebate - they'll be a process to apply for funding.

@Iamkmackered1979 see my post above - may be of use to you

@FatFredsFriedEgg

Yes I would say most are likely to be D or E depending on the area and house.

Your comment to Troublesometooth that her small 4 bed house "is hardly going to be a low band is it", implying that she's unreasonable to expect the £150 rebate, seems a bit uncalled for then.

Not at all. I suggested she get a review done if she thought the banding was off. D/E are in the middle so it’s hit or miss whether you’d get the rebate. Stamping your foot when you live in a four bed house needs a bit of a reality check.

@AdmiralCain

I think It's bollocks, Utter BOLLOCKS. I live in a band G house, I get spanked, my bill will be about £3200. I don't earn £40K + People in a band A house earning £100K plus will get a £150 refund.

How is that right!!!

Do you really think someone earning £100k a year is going to live in a band a property! In most areas that would be a studio flat, or one bed property

If you don’t want to lay that amount of money for a band G, which I assume is a 4 bed at least, then move to a smaller property in one of the other bands

@Fridafever

I earn well into 6 figures and am eligible- my house was valued recently at about a million but it’s band D. I’m going to donate the rebate.

That’s really lovely, well done @Fridafever! I’m going to imagine that other people in your situation will do the same (whether it’s true or not that they will) just because it makes me happy.

Our council tax is probably going to go up by £50 a month this year. Before we even take into account NI increases, rampant inflation on food, clothing, energy bills, and other essentials, it's going to be tough enough for us.

Our wages won't go up either (one agency nurse and one NHS worker "marking time" for two years at the bottom of the band - pay increments used to be annual but haven't been for a LONG time, and if you go out, work elsewhere and come back in, you're automatically put at the bottom of the scale, they pay lip service to experience elsewhere being taken into account but in reality it isn't. So I definitely won't be able to give up the second job for the foreseeable future, if ever.)

We're used to being very innovative with the money we have, so we should just scrape through - just - but I honestly don't know how the hell the government expects people on seriously low incomes to cope with this.

I saw their approach described as the "death of a thousand cuts" this week and that is so accurate.

The gulf between MPs and the rest of us is beyond satire now - even the Daily Heil is running less-than-adoringandslurping_editorials...www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10404277/MPs-charge-3-500-energy-bills-second-homes.html

@IveNameChangedAgain2020

Mine went into my bank account. You can request that happens

It hasn’t happened yet!

poorbuthappy It's £225 on a band C. We moved here in aug to downsize and have to play catch up as a result, but the bill according to the council would been over £200pm regardless.

@ilovemybeachhut

poorbuthappy It's £225 on a band C. We moved here in aug to downsize and have to play catch up as a result, but the bill according to the council would been over £200pm regardless.

Bloody hell. That's a massive amount for band c.

Yes, it was a bit of a downer on the move it's got to be said.

Was quite annoyed to find I’m a band E - I live in a very unremarkable terraced house

I do think it’s a bit shit because you might prioritise your housing- or have lots of children so just have to spend a huge portion of income on your house - and not actually earn that much. Those people are going to be really scraping by and need a rebate.

Someone better off might just not need a big place but earn a lot, or prefer spending money on other things - or saving - and get the rebate. It’s a really odd way to do it.

I guess it’s a way of making it per household rather than individual, which I do think is right

@Leftbutcameback thank you will look into it appreciate that.

@AdmiralCain

I think It's bollocks, Utter BOLLOCKS. I live in a band G house, I get spanked, my bill will be about £3200. I don't earn £40K + People in a band A house earning £100K plus will get a £150 refund.

How is that right!!!

Lol! If your property is Band G it must be rather... large. So if you don't like the bills for it you can move to a smaller one?

@Leftbutcameback

Yeah, the council tax banding system is definitely broken. My house is in the south east, worth quite a bit, but only band c or d I think. Doesn’t make sense. I heard years ago they were going to do a massive rebanding but guess it would be too controversial.

Given Council tax is meant to cover Council services a charge split down per head of population (with funding obviously for those who can't pay) would be far more logical and fair given that these services are used by the citizens of the area. But when it was attempted to introduce such a system in the '80s people rioted... so here we are stuck with a silly system based on notional house values that have nothing whatsoever to do with what the tax is funding (and which it's impossible to keep up to date and fair without being exhorbitantly expensive to administer). And then people moan about that, too. 😂

I'm sure the extra £12.50 a month will make all the difference

In my band E my council tax is 10% of my net household income per month. I live alone, childless by circumstance, and am an administrator in the civil service. It really makes me cross that I spend more money on CT per month than I do on food and household goods. When I queried why it was so high I was told that because a large proportion of my borough (Gtr Mcr) are on benefits it’s up to the rest of us to make up the difference. I know there are so many people worse off than me but I am really starting to feel like the squeezed middle.

But when you look at it that way ct and food is less than 20% of your income!!

We are in a much lower band (and will get rebate) and food plus ct for our family is over 25% of our income.

Our 2 bed flat is band e (not South East!) And FM's small three bed semi is band g.

I live in so called "affordable social housing" the mid way between council housing and owning. These places were built on an eco development and the rent is meant to be "fair" somehow.

However, our rent is that of a private rented property and our council tax is nearly £300 a month band E.

We're well and truly the squeezed middle that are about to become the throttled middle. All our neighbour's have moved out because of the cost of living here. I don't see how we'll be able too. 4 bed houses are like gold dust around these parts and DH and I can't work anymore than we already are.,I'm genuinely terrified as to how we'll manage,

We downsized last year from a band E now live in a band C, so for once we are on the right side of things.