If you get council tax reduction, the amount may change if your circumstances change. For example, the local authority will need to know if:

  • your income changes
  • you stop getting a ‘passporting benefit’
  • someone moves in or out of your home.

The 'passporting benefits' are income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance and the guarantee credit of pension credit.

If you're not sure if a change will affect your council tax reduction or not, it is best to tell the local authority about it, and keep a record that you have done so.

If you're given too much council tax reduction

If your council tax reduction has been worked out wrongly, or something changes and your award is not immediately altered, you can get too much council tax reduction. Your council tax bill can then increase, when the mistake is discovered.

If the mistake was caused by the local authority, and you were not responsible for it, sometimes the local authority should not increase your bill. This applies if:

  • you did not partly cause the mistake, and
  • it was not reasonable for you to realise that the amount of your council tax reduction was wrong at the time.

What you can reasonably be expected to realise depends on what you were told about how your council tax reduction was worked out. It is important to read letters about your council tax reduction carefully, and contact the local authority if you think that there is a mistake.

If you do not agree that your council tax bill should be increased for a time you were given too much council tax reduction, you can challenge the decision. You must do so within two months of the decision. Read more about challenging council tax reduction decisions.