Croydon Council Tax Reduction and Carer's Allowance: What Gets Disregarded

How Carer's Allowance Affects Your Council Tax Reduction

If you receive Carer's Allowance in Croydon, half of it is disregarded when the council calculates your weekly income for Council Tax Reduction. That 50% disregard can shift you into a lower income band and increase your discount percentage.

Carer's Allowance is currently £86.45 per week. Under the 50% disregard rule, £43.225 counts toward your assessed income and the remaining £43.225 is disregarded.

How the Disregard Works in Practice

Croydon's income-banded scheme places your total weekly net household income into one of eight bands, each with a fixed percentage discount. The bands move in £50 steps, so the Carer's Allowance disregard can genuinely move you down a band.

Take a single carer whose only income is Carer's Allowance at £86.45 per week. After the 50% disregard, the assessed income is £43.225 — well within Band 1 (£0 to £157.99), which gives a 75% discount for standard working-age claimants.

Without the disregard, the full £86.45 would still fall within Band 1 in this example. But for carers with additional income — part-time earnings, a partner's wages, or other benefits — the £43.225 reduction can be the difference between a 60% and a 40% discount, or between qualifying at all and being pushed above the £457.99 ceiling.

What Other Benefits Are Fully Disregarded

Some benefits are disregarded entirely — they do not count at all toward your income band:

• Personal Independence Payment (both components)
• Disability Living Allowance (both components)
• Attendance Allowance
• Child Benefit
• Child maintenance
• Universal Credit housing element

If you're a carer who also receives PIP or DLA for your own disability, those payments are fully disregarded on top of the Carer's Allowance 50% disregard.

Applying as a Carer

Carer's Allowance does not automatically trigger a Council Tax Reduction claim. You need to apply separately through Croydon's My Account portal and upload your Carer's Allowance award letter as part of the evidence.

If you've been receiving Carer's Allowance for some time but never claimed Council Tax Reduction, you can apply now — the scheme allows backdating of up to one month for working-age initial claims where you can show good cause for the delay.

The Croydon Council Tax Reduction guide covers the full income band table, the disregard rules for every benefit type, and the step-by-step application process, including what to upload and when.

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