Reporting a Change of Circumstances for BCP Council Tax Reduction

The 21-Day Rule

When you are receiving Council Tax Reduction from BCP Council, you are legally required to report any change in your circumstances within 21 days of the change occurring. This is not guidance — it is a condition of your award, and ignoring it creates overpayments that the council will recover from you.

What You Must Report

The list is broader than most people expect:

• Income changes — a pay rise, reduced hours, new employment, redundancy, a change in self-employed earnings
• Universal Credit changes — any shift in your monthly UC amount, new elements added or removed
• Household changes — a non-dependant adult moving in or out, a child turning 18, a partner moving in or leaving
• Savings and capital — accounts crossing the £6,000 working-age, £10,000 pension-age, or £16,000 thresholds, an inheritance, selling a property
• Moving — changing address within or outside BCP
• Benefit changes — starting or losing PIP or DLA (which can affect income disregards or non-dependant deductions), ESA Support Component, or Carer's Allowance (which can affect protected-group status or income assessment)

Telling the DWP Is Not Enough

This is the same trap as the initial application. Reporting a change to the DWP for Universal Credit purposes does not satisfy your obligation to report it to BCP Council. The council's systems receive automated data feeds from the DWP, but they still require you to report changes directly through their online change of circumstances portal or in writing.

If you update the DWP and assume the council will pick it up automatically, you risk an overpayment building silently on your council tax account.

What Happens When You Do Not Report

When BCP Council discovers an unreported change — through a DWP data match, a routine review, or your next annual reassessment — it recalculates your award back to the date the change occurred. If you received more support than you were entitled to, the council creates an excess reduction (overpayment) and adds the balance back onto your council tax account.

You will receive a revised Demand Notice showing the adjusted instalments. The overpayment is spread across your remaining monthly payments, which can increase them significantly.

There is one exception: if the overpayment was caused by an official error by BCP Council or the DWP, and you could not reasonably have known you were being overpaid, the council may write it off. But if the revised bill clearly showed a wrong figure — say, 100% support despite you reporting high earnings — and you did not query it, the protection does not apply.

Changes That Could Increase Your Award

Not every change works against you. Report these too, because they might improve your entitlement:

• Losing a job or having hours cut (lower income = higher award)
• A non-dependant moving out (removes their deduction from your award)
• Becoming entitled to a qualifying Disability or Carer Premium, ESA Support Component, Carer's Allowance, listed war pension, or qualifying Universal Credit element (could trigger protected group status, removing the 80% cap and Band C restriction)
• A partner leaving the household (changes your applicable amount and may qualify you for Single Person Discount)

Report positive changes promptly as well, and keep a record of when you notified BCP Council.

How to Report

Use BCP Council's online change of circumstances portal at bcpcouncil.gov.uk, or email [email protected] with full details of the change and supporting evidence.

The BCP Council Tax Reduction guide includes a change of circumstances log worksheet to track reporting dates and evidence submitted, so you have a clear record if a dispute arises later.

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