If you live alone, you can get a 25% discount on your Council Tax bill.
If you live with other people, but none of them are liable for Council Tax, you can also claim a 25% discount.
We call people who are not liable for Council Tax 'disregarded'.
Categories of disregarded people
The categories of person who may be disregarded are:
- people under 18 years of age
- people over 18 years of age in respect to whom child benefit is still payable
- students
- student nurses
- apprentices on a low wage
- youth training trainees
- prisoners
- long-term hospital patients
- people in residential care or nursing homes
- members of religious communities who have no income
- members of international headquarters or defence organisations
- certain school leavers under 20 years of age
The following people are also disregarded:
Live-in carers or care workers
You are disregarded if you are:
- a live-in carer of someone entitled to certain benefits. This doesn't apply if the person you're caring for is your spouse, partner or child aged under 18. You must be providing care for at least 35 hours a week.
- a live-in care worker, employed by a local council, charity or the person being cared for. You must be working at least 24 hours a week and earning £44 a week or less. If your employer is the person being cared for, you must have been introduced to them by a charity.
Severely mentally impaired
We would disregard someone diagnosed as having a severe impairment of their intellectual or social functioning, that appears to be permanent.
This could be caused by dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, severe learning difficulties, a stroke or another condition.
If everyone in your property is disregarded
If you live alone and you are disregarded, you don't have to pay Council Tax.
If a property is occupied by:
- more than one person, and
- they all fit into one or more of the categories listed above
they may be entitled to a discount or an exemption. Different levels of discounts apply depending on circumstances.
Application form
Calculating which discounts and exemptions apply can be complicated. Find out if you are entitled by filling in this form.
Before starting, read our Privacy Statement. It describes how we will use your personal information.