Council Tax Exceptional Circumstances Payment Scheme

Residents who suffer exceptional circumstances of financial hardship can seek help with paying their council tax. You won’t receive a cash payment, but an account balancing payment can help manage your debt. 

Our budget for this is limited so the help available will be for a set period and amount.

As a condition of any award you may be signposted to our third party partners. Our partners can offer support, advice and guidance to help you manage to pay your share of this local tax on an ongoing basis.

View Ashford Borough Council Council Tax Discretionary Policy 2024-2027 [pdf] 242KB

As part of the form, you must provide proof of your income and expenditure. This includes bank statements for all accounts you have including:

• current accounts;
• savings accounts;
• Post Office accounts;
• ISAs;
• any other financial accounts held by the adult(s) in the household.

You must also provide other evidence to support your application including proof of the following:

• all income;
• rent arrears (if applicable);
• any loans or finance repayments;
• credit card debts;
• court fines;
• maintenance payments;
• any work related travel costs;
• any deductions made from any benefits you receive, for example deductions for repayment of a Social Fund loan;
• debts for utilities such as gas, electric and water.

A decision on your claim will be made within one month of receiving your application. Our decision may take longer than a month if we require further evidence from you. In this instance, a decision will be made within one calendar month of receiving all evidence from you.

The exceptional circumstance fund is a discretionary scheme. We set it up and it's funded by council tax income.

Any award approved will:

• only be made for council tax within the current financial year;
• not be backdated;
• only be provided for a limited time.

If you disagree with the decision on your application you can ask for a review of the decision. This needs to be requested within one calendar month of the decision notification letter.

Apply for the council tax exceptional circumstance scheme.

To appeal against a decision that affects your council tax after 1 April 2013, you should write to us asking for a review of the decision. The request must be in writing and give reasons as to why the decision should be reviewed.

If you are not satisfied with the response any decision can be considered by an independent valuation tribunal.