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Are you eligible for the £150 tax rebate that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced? Just when we thought life couldn’t get any more expensive, it does.
The treasury has announced a £150 council tax rebate as part of a support package to help families with their expenses as energy bills skyrocket. To combat the increasing cost of living, the government is expected to give a one-off £150 council tax rebate to low income households across the UK. This is calculated to be roughly 15 million households.
We care because we believe in tax education and teaching you, our community, as much as we can about the taxes that may affect you. As you can probably guess, we’re all about understanding the ins and outs, and spreading the information far and wide. There are so many different taxes in the UK and corresponding rules and regulations that it’s important that we stay in the know about it all, so you don’t have to.
In short, you, the community, raise funds to pay the council that’s used to take care of local services like policing, street cleaning, road repairs, fire services, and more. The amount of council tax you pay depends on where you live and the price of your property. There are some situations where you may be exempt from paying, which you can find on another blog we’ve written on this subject.
If you don’t pay your council tax on time, the council will contact you two weeks after the payment date to remind you to pay within seven days. If you pay it within that week, you’re done and your council tax is paid – time to celebrate!
However, if you don’t pay within those seven days or this is your third late payment notice:
If you’re struggling to pay your council tax or think you might miss a payment (or already have), don’t worry. Just try to contact your local council as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, it’s not free money (although we wish it was). Inflation rates are soaring and as the cost of living rises, the people who are on lower income salaries are negatively impacted the most. The situation is expected to continue in the same direction as the energy cap price increases in April by about 54%. However, one upside is that the £150 council tax rebate does not have to be paid back. Phew!
The government has stated that all those in council tax bands A-D will be able to claim the council tax rebate. According to the Treasury, this should cover about 80% of the homes in the UK. You will need to check your council tax band is either A, B, C, or D to qualify.
Your council tax band is assigned based on what the value of your property was on the 1st of April 1991, for properties in England. Of course, the price of your property may have increased since then, however the tax bands are only indicative of what the property would have sold for in 1991.
Tax bands are different for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
For England, the council tax bands are as follows.
| Tax band | Value of property |
| A | Up to £40,000 |
| B | £40,000-£52,000 |
| C | £52,000-£68,000 |
| D | £68,000-£88,000 |
| E | £88,000-£120,000 |
| F | £120,000-£160,000 |
| G | £160,000-£320,000 |
| H | More than £320,000 |
Only the first four tax bands, A-D, above are eligible for the £150 council tax rebate.
Like we mentioned, council tax is different in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Wales, it’s based on the price of your property in 2003; in Scotland it’s 1991, but the tax bands work a little differently. You can find this information on the Scottish Assessors website. Northern Ireland uses “domestic rates” instead of council tax, which you can read more about here.
If you’re already paying your council tax via Direct Debit, the £150 will be directly credited to your bank account by your council in April. If you don’t pay by Direct Debit, then your council will process a claim.
If you’re not qualified for the £150 council tax rebate, there are other ways the council may be able to help you lessen the effects of the rising costs. Enquire about alternative relief or support that you may be eligible for.
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