Apply for Council Tax discounts and exemptions

You may be able to get help with your Council Tax if you are on a low income or getting certain benefits. This help is called Council Tax Reduction and is not included with Universal Credit so you must apply for this separately.

How to qualify

You may qualify for this reduction if you are responsible for paying Council Tax and any of the following apply to you:

• you have less than £16,000 in savings
• you have a low income or get any of these benefits:
  • Income Support
  • Jobseekers Allowance
  • Employment and Support Allowance
  • Pension Credit
  • Universal Credit
• you are a student with special circumstances

How to apply

Apply for Council Tax Reduction

You can also call 030 33 33 3006 to apply.

If you qualify for Council Tax Reduction, you can apply for Housing Benefit at the same time. When you apply we'll tell you if you should claim Universal Credit instead of Housing Benefit.

You may qualify for other Council Tax discounts and exemptions or Council Tax empty property discounts. You must apply for these separately.

After you apply

It normally takes about 2 weeks to process an application, as long as you've given us all the information we need.

If you qualify we'll backdate payments to the Monday after you applied.

If you do not qualify

If you're unhappy with a Council Tax Reduction decision, you can ask for an explanation of our decision or a review. If you're still not happy once we have reviewed our decision, you can appeal the decision.

Get an explanation for the decision

If you would like an explanation of our decision, send us an enquiry about your claim.

Send us an enquiry about your claim

We will contact you within 7 days to explain how we calculated your claim.

Ask us for a revew of the decision

If you're unhappy with our explanation or you want us to review our decision you must ask for this within 2 months of the date of our original benefit decision letter, which will have details of where to send your review.

In your request, you must provide:

• the date and reference number from your original decision letter
• the reason you disagree with our decision
• any extra information or documents you think will help your case
• your signature

An officer that has not been involved in your application before will look at your application again and let you know their decision within 1 month.

Make an appeal

You can appeal to the Local Taxation Chamber if either of these conditions is met:

• we have given you our decision on your request for a review and you wish to dispute that decision; you must appeal within 42 days of getting our decision on your request for a review
• we have not given you our decision on your request for a review and it's been 2 months since you requested it; you must appeal as soon as possible

If you want to appeal, you must:

• download the appeal form from www.localtaxationchamber.scot
• add details of the review decision you are appealing
• add the reasons for your appeal
• include any additional information or evidence to support your appeal

Email or post your appeal form to:

• LTCAdmin@scotcourtstribunals.gov.uk
• 01698 390012