Fall in council tax discount claims after crackdown

The number of households claiming a council tax discount has dropped by more than 300, following a crackdown.

Hartlepool Borough Council has been looking at targeting those households erroneously claiming single-person discount on their council tax bills, both intentionally and unintentionally.

The discount gives a 25% reduction to those households where only one person is aged 18 years or more.

James Magog, director of finance, IT and digital at the local authority, said there was "quite a way to go", but he was hopeful the number of claimants would continue to fall.

The latest meeting of the finance and policy committee heard the council initially targeted a reduction of 400 households among those claiming the discount for 2024/25, which would have saved the authority around £150,000.

As of the end of June, the number of claimants had reduced by 220. That number subsequently rose to "over 300" as of the end of August, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"I think a lot of that figure initially was publicity. The fact that we were going to do this made people contact the council and say, 'am I still eligible?'" said Mr Magog.

The local authority announced plans to crack down on erroneous single-person discount claims earlier this year.

It was followed by a "prosecution amnesty" in April, ahead of a new sanction policy taking effect.

"I still think there is quite a way to go," said Mr Magog.

"I still think there is fraud - and when I say fraud, I don’t necessarily mean deliberate fraud, because I do recognise some of this is undeliberate fraud.

"I am hopeful that figure will ramp up and the single-person discounts will reduce."

The single-person discount can also be claimed where there are two adults living at a property, but one is exempt from paying council tax - for example because they are a full-time student.

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