If you are struggling to pay your Council Tax we may be able to temporarily reduce your bill by awarding Hardship Relief under s13a Local Government Finance Act 1992
Types of Council Tax Hardship
Hardship Relief is intended as short-term assistance only and is not a way of reducing your Council Tax in the long term. It is normally only awarded in exceptional circumstances.
We consider each application individually depending on your circumstances and decisions are entirely at our discretion.
We have two types of Hardship application as below.
Financial Hardship
We can consider Hardship Relief if you are experiencing sudden and unforeseen financial hardship.
In most cases you will need to show that:
- You are undergoing severe, unforeseen hardship
- There are financial or personal circumstances that are stopping you from paying, and
- You do not have access to assets or savings that could be used to pay your council tax
We also expect you to have sought professional money/debt advice help before applying for hardship relief, and to have checked you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to.
Further information, help and advice can be found on our Cost of living homepage and you can find out if you can claim Council Tax Support and other benefits using our Benefit calculator.
To apply for Council Tax Financial Hardship Relief you'll need:
- Your Council Tax account number
- Full details of your application
Hardship caused by changes to Council Tax Discounts for Empty Homes
We may consider Hardship Relief if you are affected by the decisions we have made to reduce the discounts for empty homes, or to increase the council tax charge for empty homes and second properties.
You must demonstrate you have taken every possible step to bring your property back into use, or that there are exceptional circumstances which mean you cannot afford to pay the additional amount which are causing extreme hardship.
Hardship Relief will not be considered solely because the changes have had a financial impact or because you disagree with our decisions to reduce a discount or charge a premium. We will normally only consider applications from individuals, and not from companies or businesses.
More information on the charges for long-term empty properties can be found on our Empty properties page, or second homes page.
To apply for Council Tax Empty Property Relief you'll need:
- Your Council Tax account number
- Full details of your application