Council Tax discounts for people in detention

If you, or any other members of your household are in detention, you may be entitled to a reduction off your Council Tax.

Council Tax assumes that two adults live in your home. If only one adult lives in a property a discount of 25% will be given.

In some cases, even if there are two or more people aged 18 or over living in a property, a discount of up to 50% may still be given. This is because certain people are not counted when deciding how many adults live in the property. If two adults live in a property and one is not counted a 25% discount will be given. If all the adults are not counted a discount of 50% will be given. When someone is not counted this means that they are 'disregarded' for Council Tax discount purposes.

Qualifying criteria

A person will be disregarded from Council Tax as a person in detention if they are:

detained in prison or hospital, or held on remand by an order of court, and
the property remains their main home.

This disregard does not apply to persons released on parole, or persons in prison for not paying their Council Tax or fines.

Further information

A 100% exemption will apply...

If a property is unoccupied because all the occupants are being detained, no Council Tax will be charged from the date of detention until the release date.

An exemption will only apply if the property is still considered to be their home and they would be liable for Council Tax if not for their present circumstances.

This means that if the property is sold or rented to someone else, or is occupied by another person, the exemption would end.