Hi Can someone verfiy that if someone is in receipt of Pension Credit they should be passported to full council tax and Housing Benefit.
I have come across three cases, where the claimant is receiving the guaranteed Pension Credit, but the their council has not awarded them full council tax rebate even though they are aware they are receiving Pension Credit!
for example

council tax - £1078.22
Scottish water charge - £148.00
Scottish Waste charge - £167.20
Total - £1393.42

Discounts(Single) - £254.79
water discounts - £34.97
waste discount - £39.51
Council Tax Benefit - £708.22

Surely the clamiant should recieve council tax benefit to the £1078.22 mark?
Let me know if i am wrong!

At the risk of sounding stupid...what have water rates got to do with CTB?

Nothing!!!

i just wanted to show overall the benefit discount the claimant recieved. This is what was shown on his council tax award letter.
I feel he should have been awarded the full £1078.22 rather than £963.01.

Are any non dependant deductions being applied?

No the woman lost her husband about 3 months ago. Before that they both were receiving full council tax benefit. After his death a new claim was made with the revised Pension Credit letter which was now in the claimant's name.
She is a widow and living on her own.

sorry noticed a typo in the previous message he should be "SHE"

CTB comes after the single person discount so by my calculation:

CT 1078.22
25% discount = 269.56

Remaining CT liability = 808.67

I'm at a loss as to why passporting should not result in entitlement to £808.67. Have you requested an explanation?

not yet, but this has happened to about 3 cases that i have come across all in the Glasgow area. I wanted to be sure as my understanding of Pension Credit is the claimant is passported to full council and housing benefit. Even though Glasgow council have written on the award letter that the claimant is on Pension Credit Guaranteed, they still somehow not awarding full council tax.
I just wanted to know if anyone else had any similar problems. Most of my clients can't read or write English and Speak very little English. It is just out of chance that i was visiting one of the daycare centres and the lady raised this question.

Exactly how do the award notices show the calculation? Is the shortfall in the maximum CTB (ie the liablity after discounts etc) or in the amount of CTB awarded? Does the calcualtion actually include an assessment of income and capital? If so, could it be possible that despite stating that the claimant was on GPC, that this did not lead to passporting and that a full means tests was in fact carried out? If so this is official error and should be easy to rectify

It may be due to the fact that the discount is only for part of the year and they had already been calculated as receiving full benefit based on a full year at maximum rate. The maths can get quite complicated when this happens.

What may be worth checking is how much benefit has been paid.

Our authority usually send out a new bill which shows benefit entitlement, discounts and amounts paid and this may yet be received by your client and show everything as adding up. No guarantee though.

(The Water and Sewerage is included on Scottish Council Tax Bills as is is not privatised up here, and the 25% discount applies to this also. I remember being confused seeing an English Council Tax Bill which included police!)