Council Tax Discounts and Exemptions

Council Tax is based on two adults living in a property. Where there are less than two adults who have their main home at a property, then a discount may be given.

If a property is occupied by one adult, there would be a 25% discount. Where there are no adult residents there is now a 10% discount (prior to 1 Apr 2004 the discount was 50%). However in some circumstances, properties with no adult residents may be exempt. Please see the Exemptions and Empty Property sections for further details.

You can apply for a discount by using the Council Tax discount form available from the left hand side menu.

Disregarded persons

In addition, there are certain groups of residents who can be disregarded altogether when counting the number of adults in the household, they are,

• persons in detention (prisoners, people sectioned under Mental Health Act, people held under Immigration Act)
• people who are Severely Mentally Impaired (there is a separate section on the Severely Mentally Impaired available from the left hand navigation)
• persons in respect of whom Child Benefit is payable
• students including apprentices, foreign language assistants, student nurses and Youth Training trainees (there is a separate section for students available from the left hand navigation) 
• persons whose sole or main residence is in hospital
• persons in nursing care homes
• certain carers
• residents of hostels, night shelters and similar 
• members of international defence headquarters
• members of religious communities
• school and college leavers
• visiting forces

Important discount information

If a person is disregarded when calculating whether any discounts should be applied to the bill, this does not affect their liability to pay the bill.

For example a property might be jointly owned by two adults. If one of these people is disregarded then the bill would be for 75%, but both of the owners would be liable for that bill. The only exception to this rule is where one adult is a student.

Page last reviewed 10 Oct 2008