Working age and pension age support

We work out the maximum amount of Council Tax Support you can get based on:

• you and your partner’s net income, and
• the number of children you have (up to a maximum of two).

Your net income means any money you get from employment, self-employment, benefits and other income, including any money you get from people who lodge with you.

If you or your partner get one of the following benefits, you will automatically be placed in the highest band of the scheme and only pay 10% of your council tax bill:

• Income Support
• Jobseeker’s Allowance (income-based)
• Employment and Support Allowance (income-related).

We don’t include the following benefits when we work out your net income for Council Tax Support:

• Carers' Allowance
• Child Benefit
• child maintenance payments
• Disability Living Allowance
• pension contributions
• Personal Independence Payments
• Armed Forces Independence Payments.

We look at your net income after disregarding the above benefits and work out which band your income falls into.

We also disregard £25 for all claimants' earned income, as an incentive to work. Council Tax Support will then be awarded in line with the table below.

If you receive Carer’s Allowance, it will count as part of your income. However, we’ll give you an income allowance that cancels it out, so it won’t affect your net income — £83.30 from April 2025.

If you have someone aged 18 or over living with you (that isn’t your partner), it will affect how much Council Tax Support you get because they are expected to make a contribution towards your household expenses.

A standard deduction of £10 per week will be taken from your entitlement for each adult that is living with you (certain exceptions apply).

If you make a claim for Universal Credit with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), also make a claim for Council Tax Support.

• Apply for Council Tax Support

The DWP will let us know that you have claimed Universal Credit and we can then treat that as your claim date for Council Tax Support, as long as you send us any other information we need within one calendar month of us writing to you.

Self-employed people are those workers who are not employed under a contract.

A person can be self-employed as a sole trader or as part of a business partnership. Directors of limited companies are not treated as being self-employed.

What you need to provide

You need to provide details of all the income of the business as well as any other money coming into your household. This includes interest from business bank accounts, tips and royalties. We do not need to see individual receipts; if we need further information about any of your business accounts we will contact you.

• Apply for Council Tax Support

If you’ve been trading for less than one year

If you have recently started trading on a self-employed basis, you will need to complete a self employed income form to provide an estimate of the likely income and expenses for the business over the first few months trading.

This will help us to pay your Council Tax Support sooner rather than having to wait until you have been trading for a few months.

• Complete a self employed income form

If you’ve been trading for more than one year

If you have been trading for over 12 months, we will ask for a full year's trading figures, normally in the way of a profit and loss account. If you can’t provide business accounts, you will need to complete a self employed income form.

• Complete a self employed income form

We may also ask for the most recent tax assessment form received from HM Revenues and Customs.

How we work out how much you can get

To work out your income for Council Tax Support purposes, we look at all the income and expenses of the business as well as any other money coming into your household. If you have been trading for less than one year, we will use this income to work out how much help you can get.

The Council Tax Support scheme has a minimum income of 35 hours a week for people who have been self-employed for over a year.

This means that even if you work for less than 35 hours a week, we assume you earn at least National Living Wage for 35 hours per week. This helps to calculate your Council Tax Support.

The current rate of the National Living Wage can be found on the gov.uk website.

Income disregards are incomes that you receive that are ignored by us when we work out how much Council Tax Support to pay you.

For example, if you get Carers' Allowance, it will show on your award breakdown that we have taken this off you, but we have added it back in as an income disregard equal to the amount of the weekly award.

We work out the maximum amount of Council Tax Support you can get based on:

• How much you earn, either employed or self-employed
• If you have any private pensions or annuities
• If you get a state retirement pension or similar
• If you get Universal Credit
• Any rental income you get
• If you get any maintenance payments that are not for a child
• If you get any voluntary or charitable payments
• If you get any insurance payments against loss of income (this does not include insurance to cover mortgage payments)
• Any payments from overseas, except any equivalent to a UK disability benefit

If your capital amount is above £10,000 you will not be entitled to any support.

If you get Universal Credit, we'll use the DWP's assessment of your capital.

Support is limited to the value of a council tax Band D property. If you live in a property with a higher band, we'll limit the maximum award to a Band D property instead.

There is a standard deduction of £10 per week for a non-dependent or non-dependent couple.

No deduction will be made if you, or your partner if you have one, get:

• adult disability payment
• armed forced independence payment
• attendance allowance (or a state benefit treated as such)
• disability living allowance care component
• personal independence payment daily living component, or
• a pension age disability payment.

No deduction will be made if you, or your partner if you have one, are registered as severely sight impaired.

No deduction will be made if the non-dependent:

• is less than 18 years of age
• is a full time student
• is a member of the armed forces away on operations
• gets state pension credit
• gets income support or income-based jobseekers allowance,
• gets income-related employment and support allowance
• is entitled to Universal Credit and does not have any earned income, or
• is a disregarded person for the purposes of a council tax discount.

Which band you will be in depends on the following circumstances:

If you get Universal Credit and you're not working

This will put you into Band 1 and you will be awarded 100%, as long as your capital is not above the limit of £10,000.

This award will still be limited to a band D and subject to any non-dependent deduction that would apply. Most of our applicants fall into this category at the moment.

If you get Universal Credit and you're working

The award will be based on where your household and income fall within the award bands.

To get a weekly figure from your Universal Credit incomes we will multiply the monthly award by 12 and then divide by 52.

From your Universal Credit entitlement, we will deduct amounts for:

• Housing element
• Disabled child element
• Childcare element
• Carer element, and
• the Limited Capability for Work element.

We will also deduct any amount for transitional protection. These deductions can only reduce the Universal Credit to nil.

If you don't get Universal Credit

If you get income-related Employment and Support Allowance, you will be put in Band 1, and any capital will be fully disregarded.

If you are not entitled to Universal Credit and do not get income-related Employment and Support Allowance, we will use the incomes we take into account and award any entitlement based on where you are put in the award bands.

If you are working and paying childcare costs, then we may also allow a disregard from your earnings based on how much you pay; this is subject to the rules in the scheme and limited to up to £175 for one child and £300 for two or more children.

If you are a Kent County Council care leaver aged 21 to 24

Your award would normally fall within band 2, 3 or 4 but we will award your amount as if you were in Band 1.

If you have someone aged 18 or over living with you (that isn’t your partner), it will affect how much council tax support you get because they are expected to make a contribution towards your household expenses.

A standard deduction of £10 per week will be taken from your entitlement for each adult that is living with you (certain exceptions apply).

If you make a claim for Universal Credit with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), please also apply for Council Tax Support.

The DWP will let us know that you have claimed Universal Credit and we can then treat that as your claim date for council tax support, as long as you send us any other information we need within one calendar month of us writing to you.

You need to tell us straight away if your circumstances change.

If your household income goes up or down slightly, it might not affect the amount of council tax support you get.

You can look at the income bands above and check if your new income changes the part of the table that you are currently in. Even if it doesn’t, you still need to let us know about your change.

If you get council tax support but still can’t afford to pay your council tax, you can apply for an exceptional hardship award.

An award is not guaranteed, and is looked at based on your individual circumstances. If your application is successful then you will get extra help based on your individual needs.

This will not be forever - you will need to work with us and other agencies to get help and support to improve your financial position.

We recognise the importance of protecting our most vulnerable customers. This fund is in place to make sure that we protect and support those most in need.