Council make more checks on single occupancy status
Bristol council are undertaking a huge exercise targeting fraudulent single occupancy claims by sending letters to single occupiers asking them to confirm their status.
More than £1 million is expected to be claimed back through the review of Single Occupancy Discounts for Council Tax across the city. The letters will be go out in the week commencing July 4th to taxpayers providing them with a further opportunity to show that they are living alone and therefore entitled to the single occupancy discount.
This is the final stage of the process that begun six months ago with a review of the 68,000 Single Occupancy Discounts across the city.
The majority of these claims are genuine but there still remain 10,000 cases where the council has not been told about changes in occupancy or it may be that false claims have been deliberately made.
There are a number of discounts and exemptions that Council Tax payers can claim, one of which is Single Occupancy Discount that can reduce your Council Tax bill by 25 %. Last year there was a £1.3 million increase in these single occupancy discounts.
Cabinet Member for Targeted Improvements Cllr Gary Hopkins said: “The majority of people claiming the discount are genuine and we have no desire to worry people unduly.
“We know that the number of single households are increasing in the city – as they are nationally, which will partly explain the reason for the large increase claiming the discount.
“But this exercise is essential to ensure that the single person discount is only claimed by those entitled to the relief. We have an obligation to the council tax payers of Bristol to ensure that this is the case, especially during these challenging financial times when every penny counts.
“Obviously incorrect claims reduce the amount of available Council Tax the Council has to spend on local services. We are expected to recover at least £1.2 million from this process, which is a very significant amount.
“We wish to give residents every opportunity to query any proposed changes. This is why we have taken six months reviewing claims and contacting residents at various stages.
“The letters going out this week provide a further chance for residents to get back in touch with us if they feel the information is incorrect.”
