April Council Tax Rebate

tcellmutation

vikingqueen said:

I don't pay by direct debit though 

I’ll PM you my account number and sort code

MarkM88

vikingqueen said:

I don't pay by direct debit though 

You will be invited to claim from your local authority. 

vikingqueen

Thanks for that @MarkM88

tcellmutation

The end is neigh! Russia are the King of the North
https://www.jw.org/en/library/series/more-topics/russia-invades-ukraine-bible-meaning-hope/

calcotti

OverlyAnxious said:

On the Martin Lewis show this week, he said the council tax rebate would not affect any benefits but I haven't been able to find any more info on that.  

Government has said regulations will be passed to disregard it as income.

_witchcore

My council still charges council tax when people are on benefit, at a reduced rate. I'm sort of jealous of people with councils that don't, but glad I don't pay in full like in some areas. It feels like ours are a bit heartless to charge (for example) a single, non disabled, under 25, jobseeker who is living in a bedsit on the bare minimum £7 a week. 

Last year our council were meant to take £150 off the bill of everyone who is on a low income. They got the money in April and mine has just been applied in Feb, so I feel like the administration of this rebate will take even longer. They want to automate the payment somehow by paying it into the bank account of everyone who pays by DD... but they have tens of thousands of households who don't pay by DD. I thought that was the only reason for handing it over to the council tax teams... for ease of payment? I thought as the money isn't intended for paying council tax it will not automatically go towards that? I would rather use it for something else and continue to pay mine by DD as I'm in credit anyway.

calcotti

_witchcore said:

My council still charges council tax when people are on benefit, at a reduced rate. I'm sort of jealous of people with councils that don't, 

Very few councils now provide 100% Council Tax Reduction for working age claimants.

_witchcore said:
..so I feel like the administration of this rebate will take even longer. 

If they haven't distributed it by November it goes back to central government.

chiarieds

Sorry for going slightly off topic, & then even more so.

I wonder if anyone can answer my query as to this £200 'loan' re: electricity. I live in a Park Home, & our meters are read each quarter, then we receive an invoice from the Park owner, whom we pay as he arranges our electricity tariff. Not that I particularly want something I'll have to pay back, but will the Park Owner receive £200 for each site, then, in this situation (if that occurs), will that then be redistributed to each Park Home owner?

Hi @OverlyAnxious - pleased to have caught you on this thread, I've seen this mentioned before, but have only looked into it properly this afternoon. I wonder if you might find Relay UK helpful? I had perceived it was something to help people with hearing problems, but it sounds like it could help you too; I only wish I'd read about it earlier, but please do have a look, as I hope it may help you.

Please see: https://www.relayuk.bt.com/about-relay-uk.html

tcellmutation

This is my discussion and it’s getting sooo many comments. Thanks everyone

chiarieds

Thank you @woodbine -  appreciate your reply. Just wondered if the site owner may get £200 per site, then would they disburse that? A bit naughty if the site owner receives the money yet doesn't disburse it....

chiarieds

Ah, hadn't thought of that....would indeed be very different.

OverlyAnxious

MarkM88 said:

@OverlyAnxious could you not put the £150 straight towards your energy bills and be in credit? 

That's a fair point, Mark.  It's certainly a possibility. 

However, I'm already well in credit after a payment issue last year.  Two payments were taken for one bill and I couldn't face the hassle of trying to reclaim one of them so just left it in the account as credit.  It's not the first problem I'd had with their pay-each-bill app system so I moved over to direct debit at that point.  I also claimed the WHD which I regret in hindsight.  I didn't actually need it for this winter (as I had done in previous winters) and had forgotten that funds were limited so I may have taken a payment from someone that really needed it.  

Also not keen on the idea of 'locking it' into energy credit just in case I did need it for anything in future.  Would rather have it in an instantly accessible online account if possible. 

OverlyAnxious

calcotti said:

OverlyAnxious said:

On the Martin Lewis show this week, he said the council tax rebate would not affect any benefits but I haven't been able to find any more info on that.  

Government has said regulations will be passed to disregard it as income.

Thanks for that.  So, just to confirm, I could put it into a separate account without any problems?

I still have an empty account that I used for the PIP backpay in 2020 to keep that separate from income for the 12 month disregard on backpay.

OverlyAnxious

chiarieds said:

Sorry for going slightly off topic, & then even more so.

I wonder if anyone can answer my query as to this £200 'loan' re: electricity. I live in a Park Home, & our meters are read each quarter, then we receive an invoice from the Park owner, whom we pay as he arranges our electricity tariff. Not that I particularly want something I'll have to pay back, but will the Park Owner receive £200 for each site, then, in this situation (if that occurs), will that then be redistributed to each Park Home owner?

Hi @OverlyAnxious - pleased to have caught you on this thread, I've seen this mentioned before, but have only looked into it properly this afternoon. I wonder if you might find Relay UK helpful? I had perceived it was something to help people with hearing problems, but it sounds like it could help you too; I only wish I'd read about it earlier, but please do have a look, as I hope it may help you.

Please see: https://www.relayuk.bt.com/about-relay-uk.html

Thanks @chiarieds

I've seen relay mentioned before too, but haven't tried it myself so far.  I wish I'd seen it a few years ago as I think it would have been helpful then.  At the moment, particularly since last spring, I'm still having a lot of vision issues with screens so can't read much and can only type for short periods of time on good days.  Any sort of anxiety trigger exacerbates that to the point where I can't even focus on the screen of my laptop or phone without my head feeling like it's imploding.  So under the stress of a PIP assessment, for example, I don't think even the relay system would work in my case.  I do appreciate the suggestion though! 

Regarding the electricity loan.  If you each have a separate meter, and are all billed separately from the energy company (albeit via the park owner), you should each get the £200 loan.  Equally, the £40 repayments in the following years will be applied in the same way, so do make sure you get the £200 this year if eligible!

calcotti

OverlyAnxious said:

calcotti said: Government has said regulations will be passed to disregard it as income.

Thanks for that.  So, just to confirm, I could put it into a separate account without any problems?

I don't think that follows.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-council-tax-rebate-2022-23-billing-authority-guidance/support-for-energy-bills-the-council-tax-rebate-2022-23-billing-authority-guidance#impact-of-payments
It is clear therefore that the intention is that the payments will be disregarded as income, not clear that they will be disregarded as capital which seems to be your concern. I think it likely that there will be a capital disregard (for at least a limited period) but until we see the regulations we will not know. (A 12 month capital disregard applies for local welfare payments under existing rules - it would seem logical that this rebate will come under similar rules).

Impact of payments
41. To ensure that households already receiving council tax support receive the full benefit of the rebate scheme, the Secretary of State made the Council Tax (Demand Notices and Reduction Schemes) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 which came into force on 12 February 2022. The Regulations require that from 1 April 2022 all local council tax support schemes (including those for persons of working and pension age) must disregard scheme payments in determining a person’s eligibility for a council tax reduction and the amount of any such reduction. Where a council has already determined its local council tax support scheme for 2022-23, it will need to revise it by the statutory deadline of 11 March 2022, taking a proportionate approach to the local consultation requirements set out at paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 1A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

42. All payments made under the Council Tax Rebate or Discretionary Fund are to be treated as local welfare provision and therefore will not be taken into account in the calculation of income related benefits. For Universal Credit, the Department of Work and Pensions will legislate to ensure payments are disregarded. DWP will write separately to councils to confirm this approach.

43. All payments made under the Council Tax Rebate or Discretionary Fund are non-taxable. Recipients do not need to inform HMRC of the amounts received and those who are self-employed do not need to report the amounts on their Self Assessment tax returns. As these payments are non-taxable they do not impact tax credits. Tax credits claimants do not need to report these payments as income to HMRC.

OverlyAnxious

Ah, I get it now!  I didn't consider the difference between income and capital.