Checks to be carried out on council tax discount claims

May 8, 2016 by Southend Borough Council

Checks to be carried out on council tax discount claims

Monday 9th May 2016

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council is to carry out a review of all households claiming a 25% single persons discount on their council tax.

Sophisticated data matching technology will be used as part of an on-going review to validate legitimate Single Person Discount Claims and identify and remove those being claimed in error or fraudulently.

A 25% discount is worth a minimum of £250 a year and is given to anyone who claims to be living in a property on their own. There are currently 27,747 people in the Borough who receive the discount.

In partnership with Capacity Grid, the Council will check between May and June to see whether people are genuinely living alone, by cross-referencing with other sources of information about their household such as, but not limited to, the electoral register and financial sector information.

Joe Chesterton, the Council’s Head of Finance, says: “We will be contacting all those we believe to be claiming incorrectly via letter and or telephone. However in the meantime, I would urge anyone who is claiming the discount and whose circumstances have changed to contact us immediately by telephoning 01702215001.

“The longer you leave it, the larger your backdated bill will be, so it makes sense to tell us as soon as possible.

“Even if you were living alone when you received your bill for the year, if another adult is living with you now, we will need to re-calculate the amount you need to pay.”

Any persons failing to respond to requests for further information about their claim will have it withdrawn from the beginning of the current financial year or from the date the discount was applied if within the current financial year. If, during the review process, checks indicate that another adult is living at the address, the discount will also be withdrawn.