How is Council Tax Support calculated

We base our income banded scheme values on your net income as shown in the table below. Each year we increase the values by September Retail Price Index % (RPI%), rounded to the nearest £5.

The income bands for our 2023/24 CTS scheme are:

Discount	Passported	Single Income Band £	Couples Income Band £	Family with 1 child £	Family with 2+ Children
Band 1 100%	Relevant benefit	0.00 to 90.00	0.00 to 140.00	0.00 to 220.00	0.00 to 300.00
Band 2 90%	N/A	90.01 to 140.00	140.01 to 190.00	220.01 to 255.00	300.01 to 315.00
Band 3 85%	N/A	140.01 to 185.00	190.01 to 240.00	255.01 to 325.00	315.01 to 365.00
Band 4 50%	N/A	185.01 to 280.00	240.01 to 325.00	325.01 to 400.00	365.01 to 440.00
Band 5 25%	N/A	280.01 to 365.00	325.01 to 420.00	400.01 to 485.00	440.01 to 540.00

Information on our 2022 to 2023 CTS scheme and how these changes may affect you, click below:

council tax summary (PDF 350KB)

Disregarded income

When we work out entitlement to Council Tax Support, we do not take the following income into account:

Disability Living Allowance
Personal Independence Payment
Armed Forces Independence Payment
Child Benefit
Child Maintenance
War Disablement Benefits
We also apply an earnings disregard of £7.50 for single people, £12.50 for couples and £17.50 for lone parents

Summary of our scheme

We award CTS as a discount, based on household income and circumstances as follows:

Earnings disregard of £7.50 for single people, £12.50 for couples and £17.50 for lone parents
Income from Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments, Armed Forces Independence Payments, Child Benefit, Child Maintenance and War Disablement Benefits are ignored
Universal Credit is treated as earned income when there is an element of wages, housing costs are ignored and deductions from Universal Credit to repay debts will not be removed
Anyone with savings of £6,000 or more will not qualify
Self-employed income is assessed by applying a minimum income floor
Applications from joint tenants are assessed on their proportion of the household
Income bands increase each year by September Retail Price Index

You can see full details of the scheme at Council Tax Support banded scheme 2023/24 – (pdf, 2mb)