does any one know how much the goverment say a family of 4 need to live on before you have to pay council tax?

Answer 1

Council tax benefit amount depends on the age of your children etc, I think it would be around £150 before your benefit would be affected, but check on the councils website there should be a calculator to work it out.

Answer 2

It doesn't matter how many you have in your family or how little you earn, you still have to pay council tax. You only get a Council Tax Rebate if no one in the house works or if you are on a really low income. You can still apply for Council Tax Benefit whatever, get the forms from your local council offices. They can only say no.

Answer 3

If you're employed you have to pay Council Tax regardless I think though you should get a rebate of some sort. If you're unemployed it'll be paid for you. We always pay it unfortunately.

Answer 4

if your on state benefits then you dont pay any council tax at all

Answer 5

You will need to check with your local authority.

Here's my councils list of deductions (http://www.manchester.gov.uk/counciltax/reductions/)

Council Tax Discounts
How can I apply for a Council Tax Discount?
If you want to apply for a discount contact us and ask for an application form. We will send you information about discounts and an application form to fill in and send back to us. Some of the discount forms are now available online for you to download and return to us.

Discounts
The amount of Council Tax you have to pay depends on

The valuation band your property is in and
The number of people aged 18 or over living in your property
When we work out your Council Tax we assume that two people, aged 18 or over, live in most properties.

If someone living in your property is permanently disabled, you may be entitled to a Disabled Person Discount.

Disabled Person Discount
If a property has particular features to meet the needs of a disabled adult or child who lives there, the Council Tax bill may be reduced. You can download an application form, which should be completed by the person responsible for paying Council Tax.

If the discount is awarded, your bill will be based on the valuation band below that of your property, effectively a reduction in banding. Properties in Band A will have 1/9th of the Band D charge deducted from their bill.

Applications usually need supporting evidence such as a letter from a doctor and are reviewed each year.

Single Person Discount
If only one person, aged 18 or over, lives in your property, we can give you a single person discount of 25% (one quarter).

We may need to decide where someone's main home is for example, if they work away from home or if they have more than one home.

Other Discounts
Some people are disregarded for Council Tax purposes. This means that we will not count them when we decide how many people, aged 18 or over, live in your property.

We may be able to give you a Council Tax Discount if someone in your home is

A Student, Student Nurse, Apprentice or Youth Training Trainee
A Non-British husband or wife or dependant of a Student (who is prevented by the terms of her / his leave to enter or remain in the UK from working or claiming benefit.
Under 20 and still at school or has just left school
A person who still has Child Benefit paid for them
A person who is a Foreign Language Assistant
A person who is severely mentally impaired
A Carer
In prison or held somewhere else by the authorities
Living in hospital
Living in a care home
A Member of a Religious Community
A person who lives in a hostel for the homeless or a night shelter
A Member (or dependant) of International Headquarters and defence organisations
A Member (or dependant) of a Visiting Force; or
A person with diplomatic immunity or privileges.
We can reduce your bill by 25% or 50%, depending on how many people we count.

If we count only one person as living in your property we can give you a discount of 25%
If we count nobody as living in your property we can give you a discount of 50%

From http://www.manchester.gov.uk/counciltax/


What is Council Tax?
Council Tax is a locally set tax that is payable on all domestic properties. In most cases there will be one bill per property, whether it is a house, bungalow, flat, maisonette, mobile home or houseboat, and whether it is owned or rented.

It is collected to help pay for local services such as schools, roads, libraries, police, fire and rubbish collection, as well as many other local services.

The basic Council Tax bill is made up of two parts, 50% property and 50% personal. The 50% personal part is calculated on the basis that two or more people live in the property. If only one person, aged 18 or over, lives in the property the personal part is reduced to 25%. This is called a Single Person Discount.

Each property is valued by the Listing Officer of the Valuation Office Agency (external site) and is placed in one of eight valuation bands, A to H. It is a combination of your property band and the number of people living in a property that determines the amount of Council Tax due.

The amount of Council tax due can be further reduced for people on a low income or receiving certain state benefits. See benefits for further information.

What's new in Council Tax?
New Council Tax charge for 2006-2007
Council Tax Reminder Notices
Council Tax Reminder Notices issued June 2006
Customers have been sent reminders because they are behind with their Council Tax payments.

If you get one you should
Read it carefully.

Pay the total amount overdue shown on the reminder within seven days. You must then keep up with the remaining payments that are shown on your reminder. If you don’t, you will have to pay all your Council Tax in one lump sum or get taken to court and have extra costs added to the amount that you owe.

We will not make any new payment plan until you make up the payments that you have missed.

Our Call Centre will be very busy, you should only phone if you do not think that you owe us the amount shown on the reminder.

If you do owe the money, Call Centre Staff have been instructed to only accept payments of the outstanding amount shown on the reminder.