The part worth reading before you press submit is backdating. A working age claim can be taken back up to six months and a pension age claim carries an effective three-month backdate, on two very different tests, and what Council Tax Reduction is covers the scheme behind both.

Below is who applies, what you can send, how backdating works, what happens next, and the review and appeal deadlines if the answer is wrong.

The council that bills you, which the regulations call the relevant authority. The DWP does not administer Council Tax Reduction and does not decide your claim.

The council, not the DWP

Council Tax Reduction is a Scottish scheme delivered by the 32 councils. Questions about your award, including a request to review it, go to the council rather than to a benefits office.

A Universal Credit claim does not make the council tax application for you. Council Tax Reduction on Universal Credit explains how the two claims sit alongside each other.

Which council, and where the form lives

The address on your council tax bill settles which council you are in. Official Scottish guidance sits on mygov.scot, and your own council’s website carries its application form.

If an online form does not suit you, ask the council what other ways it will take an application. Ask for a reference number whichever route you use, and write it on your copy of the bill.

What it costs

Nothing. Free help with the form is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland, National Debtline and your council’s own money advice or welfare rights team, and whether you qualify sets out the capital limits and thresholds before you start.

One of you. Regulation 22 says the application is made by whichever one of you you agree should apply, or in default of agreement by whichever one the council determines.

The rule in regulation 22

The wording sits in Part 4 of the 2021 Regulations. Both of your circumstances go into the assessment whichever of you signs the form.

Regulation 22 leaves the choice to the two of you. Pick one, and give the household’s full details.

If your household changes

Tell the council when a partner moves in or out, because that changes who is assessed and sometimes who should be applying. A separation also affects the discounts on the account.

If you are now the only adult in the property you may be due the 25% single person discount as well as a reduction, so tell the council rather than assuming the change is already on the account.

Your council tax account number, proof of who you are, evidence of your income and capital, and details of everyone else living in the property. A missing document is not a reason to delay sending the form.

What to gather, and what to do if you cannot

You can offer photographs or scans of documents where the form allows an upload. Keep your own copy of everything you send.

Send the form before the folder is complete

Note on the form which item is still to come and when you expect it. The date you applied is what fixes the start of any award, so it is worth protecting.

Save the confirmation screen, reference number or email. That is the record you will want if there is ever a question about when you claimed.

Yes, and the two schemes do it differently. A working age claim can be backdated up to six months where you had continuous good cause for not applying earlier, and a pension age claim made within three months of fulfilling the conditions is effectively backdated three months with no good cause test.

The two schemes side by side

Ask for backdating in the application itself rather than afterwards. If the form has no space for it, send a covering note setting out the period you want covered.

What continuous good cause means for a working age claim

The word doing the work is continuous. The explanation has to cover every week you want backdated, not one moment in it.

Set out the period with dates and explain what was happening throughout it. Send anything you hold that fits those dates.

The pension age route is simpler

Regulation 62 of the pension age regulations requires the application to be made within three months of fulfilling the conditions. Meet that and the three months follow without any test of your reasons.

The one-month linking rules

Regulation 26 also links an application to an earlier date where it is made within a month of certain events. Those include an award of Universal Credit or a qualifying benefit, first becoming liable for the council tax, a separation, or notifying the council that you intend to apply.

Telling the council you intend to apply is therefore worth doing on the day you decide to. Tell them in writing and keep a copy, because it can move the start of an award.

Discounts and exemptions work differently

There is no statutory maximum backdating period for a discount, an exemption or the disabled band reduction. Entitlement runs from when the conditions were met, and how far back a council goes is discretionary and evidence-led, so practice varies.

The council assesses the claim, may come back for more evidence, and then reissues your council tax bill with the reduction applied to the account. No money is paid to you.

Reading the revised bill

• Check the reduction is showing against the right account and property.
• Check any discount you claimed, such as the 25% single person discount, is also on it.
• Check the water and sewerage element, which is billed alongside and reduced under its own separate scheme.
• Check the revised instalment amounts and the dates they are due.

Query anything that looks wrong at once rather than waiting for the next bill. Our council tax billing guide explains how the charge and the instalment plan are built.

Reporting changes afterwards

An award is recalculated on your circumstances, so income, benefit and household changes have to be reported.

Report a change even where it will reduce the award, because an award is worked out on the circumstances you have declared.

Ask the council in writing to review the decision within two months of it. The council then has two months to redetermine and notify you, and after that the appeal goes to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal within 42 days.

The timetable in full

The 42 days also runs where the council has not responded within its own two months. Silence is not a reason to wait indefinitely.

Where the appeal goes now

Council Tax Reduction appeals are heard by the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which took over on 1 April 2023 when the CTR Review Panel was abolished. The Review Panel no longer exists and cannot take an appeal.

The same transfer swept up the Valuation Appeal Committee, so a band challenge now ends up in the same chamber on its own separate deadlines.

Say what you think was missed

Set out the specific figure or fact you believe is wrong, with the evidence attached. Name the point rather than only disagreeing with the outcome.

Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline. Ask before the two months are gone rather than after.

Keep paying what you can towards the current bill, and ask the council in writing what it will do with the account while the claim is outstanding.

The recovery timetable, in order

Miss an instalment and the council issues a reminder notice, which gives you 7 days to bring the account back on track. A council may issue up to two reminders in a financial year.

After a further default a final notice is issued, and if that goes unpaid for 7 days the right to pay by instalments is lost and the rest of the year’s balance falls due.

Tell the council the claim is in progress

Ask them to note the account and ask what can be done about the instalments meanwhile. Reinstating instalments is at the council’s discretion rather than a right.

Apply anyway, and apply first. A reduction cuts the current charge at source, which is what makes an arrangement on the arrears realistic.

Arrears and how payments are allocated

Payments are normally allocated to the oldest year of arrears first unless you specify otherwise. Put it in writing if a payment is meant for the current year, and ask about a special payment arrangement once the reduction is in place.

There is no statutory maximum period for spreading council tax arrears. Our council tax debt advice page covers how to put an affordable offer to a council.

If recovery has already started

Where the council has obtained a summary warrant, a 10% statutory surcharge has already been added. It is granted by the sheriff court without a hearing, so nothing arrives asking you to attend.

Non-payment of council tax cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland, it is not a criminal offence, and council tax arrears are not reported to credit reference agencies.

If money is already coming out of your wages, get money advice quickly. An approved Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest, fees and charges, and it is run by the Accountant in Bankruptcy.