You can claim Council Tax Reduction if you are on a low income and pay Council Tax.
If you think you may be entitled to help towards paying your Council tax and want to know how this is worked out and how you can apply, the section below will help you with this.
You can get Council Tax Reduction in addition to other Council Tax Discounts
There are no changes to our Council Tax Reduction scheme from 1st April 2026, other than the inflation increase to the income bands. For more information on the income bands, please see ‘ How is Council Tax Reduction worked out?’ in the section below.
If you are of Pension Age
If you are of pension age any reduction you receive will be based on the National Scheme. If you have capital over £16,000 you will not be entitled to any Council Tax Reduction unless you get Guarantee Pension Credit.
If you are of Working Age
From The 1st April 2019 Council Tax Reduction, for customer of Working age , is based on a banded scheme.
This means that depending on your income and your household you will fall into a band that will mean that your Council Tax Reduction will be either 100%, 80%, 60%, 40% or 0% of your Council Tax charge. The details below show the income bands from 1.4.26.
| Band | % | Single | Couple | Family +1 | Family +2 |
| 1 | 100 | £0-£110.03 | £0–£162.50 | £0 – 227.75 | £0 – £291.72 |
| 2 | 80 | £110.04 – £175.27 | £162.51–£227.75 | £227.76–£291.72 | £291.73- £356.97 |
| 3 | 60 | £175.28-£240.55 | £227.76- £291.72 | £291.73-£356.97 | £356.98–£422.24 |
| 4 | 40 | £240.56–£307.07 | £291.73- £344.19 | £356.98- £422.24 | £422.25- £487.50 |
The following amount will be deducted from your income to obtain a net figure that will be used in the calculation.
- Earnings disregard £25.00
- Disabled Living allowance
- Personal independence payments
- Employment and support – support component
- Disability premium
- Enhanced disability premium
- Severe Disability premium
- Disabled child premium
- Carers allowance or Carers Element if you get Universal credit
- Child Benefit
- Child maintenance
- Childcare costs (conditions apply)
- War Pensions
There are no deductions for any non dependants living with you.
If you are claiming Universal credit we will take into account the Standard element and the Child element.We will also take into account any unearned and earned income Universal Credit tell us about. We will deduct £25.00 from the earnings. As we will not take into account the Carer element and Childcare element we will not disregard Childcare costs of Carers allowance.
Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if you are self-employed and have been trading for more than year, we will assume your weekly earnings are national living wage multiplied by 35 hours. If you are a lone parent we will assume earnings of national living wage multiplied by 16 hours.
Any award of Council Tax Reduction will be added to your Council tax account as a discount and a revised bill will be sent to you. This bill will show your new monthly instalments and the reverse side will state the relevant discount we have added, an example is shown below:
If you or your partner, together or separately, have capital, savings and investments which add up to more than £6000 you will not be entitled to any support from the scheme. You will have to pay the full amount of Council Tax for your property.
If you would like the full pdf version of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2026/27 please email your request to benefits@wealden.gov.uk and this can be sent to you.
If you are of Pension Age you can make a claim here
If you are of Working Age and you are NOT in receipt of Universal Credit you can make a claim here
If you are of Working Age and ARE in receipt of Universal Credit you can make a claim here
You will need to enter a quick code of 658B7R
Unsure if you fall into a Pension Age or Working Age category? You can check by using this calculator tool provided by the Department of Works and Pensions
When you start an online claim form we will make it clear what information you will need to provide, and what further evidence we may also need from you.
Please be as accurate as you can with the information you tell us as this is what will be used to calculate any discount you may be eligible for.
If you are unsure about an answer to a specific question please view our online claim help page.
Once you have submitted your form, you will receive a reference number so please make a note of this. You will also see a checklist of any evidence you will need to provide to us.
If you are Working Age -You can send us any evidence we have asked for to support your application through the online portal when you make your claim.
If you are of Pension Age -You can send any evidence we have asked for through our contact us form or you can send them to Benefits Service, Wealden District Council, Vicarage Lane, Hailsham, East Sussex, BN27 2AX. If you post the evidence we will need to see original documents but we will send these back to you the day we receive them.
Awards will usually start from the day we receive your claim or the date that you first contact us to say you want to claim.
There are circumstances when we may ‘backdate’ your award.
If you would like us to consider your award to be backdated, you need to tell us the reason why you could not claim from the date you are asking the award to be considered from.
We will deal with each case individually and when we let you know our decision, we will tell you what to do if you disagree with it. There is a section in the application form for you to complete if you would like us to consider backdating your award.
Financial help towards Council Tax is awarded in advance for the current financial year and is credited to your council tax account. If an award puts your account in credit, we will usually refund this money to you.
Firstly, if you think we have worked out your benefit incorrectly or you disagree with the figures we have used, you can ask us to look at your claim again. When we tell you how much reduction you are awarded, we will give you more information about how to do this.
You can also request that your award is backdated if you disagree with the date we have made the award from. There are strict guidelines about this and you will need to show you have a good reason why you did not claim earlier.
If you are finding it difficult to pay your council tax instalments please contact the local taxation department on 01323 443385 to discuss this.
- Help for Households – Get Government cost of living support
- East Sussex County Council – Support with cost of living
- Benefits calculator– Find out what benefits you can claim
It is important that you tell us of any changes to your circumstances.
If we make an award of Council Tax Reduction and you do not tell us if any of your circumstances change, your entitlement may then be incorrect and you will have this added back to your charge to pay.
When we work out what level of reduction we can award to your Council Tax account, we take into account what you have told us about the people who live with you, your income and capital.
Some examples of changes are:
- You start or stop working
- your working hours change
- your child leaves education
- your state benefits change
- your private/occupational pension changes
- some move in with you/someone moves out of the household
- you move property
- you are advised of changes to disability benefits
These are not the only changes just some examples. If you are unsure if you should tell us about a change then please tell us anyway.
Yes,, you may qualify for additional help under the new Council Tax Reduction Terminal Illness Policy that the Council is implementing from 1 April 2026. The Council will consider awarding a discretionary reduction where all of the following conditions are met:
- A valid and certified Special Rules 1 form (SR1) completed by your GP or a medical professional has been accepted by the Council for either the liable person, their partner or a dependant who is ordinarily resident in the dwelling
- Council Tax Reduction has already been awarded but covers less than 100% of the liability
- The discretionary reduction is required solely to top up the support to 100%
- The applicant remains liable for Council tax at the dwelling and the application relates to the current financial year
Please note the award is strictly limited to the amount needed to reduce the liability to nil.
No award can be granted in the following circumstances:
-Council Tax Reduction has not been awarded
-A valid SR1 has not been provided
-The household already receives 100% Council Tax Reduction
-Any circumstances outside the defined class, regardless of hardship or vulnerability.
Customers will be notified in writing of the amount of any reduction, the period this covers and confirmation that the award is under S13A(1)(c), and the Council may request additional information if needed to confirm ongoing eligibility.
If you would like more information on the policy please contact the Council tax team on 01323 443385 or email localtax@wealden.gov.uk.