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Council Tax Reduction and single person discounts
Has anyone come across this situation before?
Client is a British Citizen, and has a partner who has no recourse. She has claimed UC as a single person, so that bit is fine.
As a single person she was entitled to a single person discount on her Council Tax, and Council Tax Reduction covered the other 75%. As someone with a partner there will be no single person discount, and Council Tax Reduction will cover 100% of the bill.
If the amount of Council Tax Reduction increases, will this count as additional recourse to public funds? It’s not a difference in her personal allowance as she is passported from her UC claim. (She has no earnings so CTR don’t need to do a calculation).
It feels odd as the end result for her is the same - she lives in the same property, she doesn’t pay any Council Tax, but I’m worried that on paper she is going to get extra benefit because of the partner’s presence.
You’re right to be worried, see p.460 of CPAG’s Migrangts Handbook which covers exactly this scenario.
If your leave is subject to a no recourse to public fundzs condition, you should also avoid being included in someone else’s <council tax reduction> claim because if s/he receives a larger council tax reduction because of your presence (eg, if s/he loses the single person’s discount and becomes liable for 100 per cent of the council tax) this also breaches your no recourse to public funds condition and could affect your right to remain in the UK.
It’s only council tax reduction that counts as public funds, whereas a discount on your council tax liability is not.
But isn’t CTR also just a reduction in the amount owed, not a paymend of anyone’s funds?
http://www.nrpfnetwork.org.uk/information/Pages/public-funds.aspx
council tax reduction is included on the list of public funds , so a customer with a partner who has no recourse, will receive more ctr than they would otherwise, because the CTR is higher because there is no single person discount