Council Tax Reduction or Not? - Thai wife!

Wife entered UK 5 years ago. Been through the Settlement and ILR Visa stages WITH NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS. She became a BRITISH CITIZEN last year. Has done ESOL on a part time basis since 2006 ( BUT NOT ESOL WITH CITIZENSHIP - AS WE LATER FOUND OUT )! She finished last June. (NOTE ALSO THAT THE FULL TIME COURSE WAS NOT 21 HOURS PER WEEK ). Re Council Tax - was claiming 1 person occupancy, since I thought, rightfully or wrongly, that she was a ` disregarded ` person. SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO VOTE, NO RIGHT TO ANY PUBLIC FUND - I UNDERSTAND COUNCIL TAX IS NOT A PUBLIC FUND! NO RIGHT BASICALLY, FOR ANYTHING. I MAINTAIN HER AND OUR SON! Seem to think there is Case Law somewhere about this, but cannot find! Council are now trying to reclaim 5 years of underpayment, ie. the additional 25% they say that I should have paid for her from the outset!
Let me add though, IT WAS I, WHO COULD CLAIM THE CTC AND CHB. CTC moved the goalposts last year, reneged on their previous decision and told me WE SHOULD HAVE BOTH BEEN CLAIMING - ended with me ` winning `! HOW CAN ONE CLAIM AS A NON BRITISH CITIZEN WITH NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS? SEEMS TO ME, DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS ON THE LEGISLATION BY SO MANY DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS!
NO DOUBT, THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE IN A SIMILAR POSITION AS I. Would appreciate an answer, perhaps with case stated, so as I can tell the Local Authority, who are certainly ` NOT AU FAIT` with these types of matters.

Council are now trying to reclaim 5 years of underpayment, ie. the additional 25% they say that I should have paid for her from the outset!

Hmm ..... the expression that comes into my mind is ... Benefit Fraud. If I were you I would pay up without making a fuss, and be thankful, hopefully, that you don't end up being prosecuted in Court.

The fact that you might have been able to claim certain benefits, but did not, is irrelevant as regards the Council Tax that you now owe.

Please confirm that one of you is now claiming Child Benefit, and that you and your wife jointly are now claiming Tax Credits.

I confirm that we BOTH claim Child Tax Credits ( she, by the way, has only just started a part time job under 16 hrs per week - spoke to CTC - - do NOT want to know, since does not affect our current claim ).
I MYSELF claim the Child Benefit, as I have done since son born.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT I AM RETIRED, but live NOT on State Pension - nowhere near that, but on my former Occupational Pension ( one of the lucky ones, I suppose, to be able to retire in early 50`s ).
NO benefits have been claimed, apart from what I have already said .
AN INTERESTING POINT TOO - Have friends in a similar position, but less the child. Husband, the British Citizen ,WAS ALLOWED CTB for his Thai wife WHEN SHE WAS ON THE SETTLEMENT part of the visa. Local Authority ALLOWED! When she progressed to ILR, then started to pay. The Law on this is both intriguing and ultra confusing! I look forward to your update, in due course

chantakan wrote:AN INTERESTING POINT TOO - Have friends in a similar position, but less the child. Husband, the British Citizen ,WAS ALLOWED CTB for his Thai wife WHEN SHE WAS ON THE SETTLEMENT part of the visa. Local Authority ALLOWED! When she progressed to ILR, then started to pay. The Law on this is both intriguing and ultra confusing! I look forward to your update, in due course

I think you are confusing council tax benefit with single person occupancy discount.

If you are on a low income you can claim CTB. if you are living as a couple and one half of the couple has no recourse you would have to make sure you declared this so that you didn't claim additional public funds due to your wife being present. Perhaps this is what your friend claimed.

this is different from single occupancy discount which you can only claim if you are living alone or with a disregarded person. your wife was not disregarded purely because she had no recourse to public funds and couldn't vote.

Ps. Please can you stop writing in capitals. It is considered to be the same as shouting.

OH dear of dear have been with the internet since commercially available and fully au fait with windows mac os linux etc i find your comments unacceptible i am totally aware of netiquette capitals are used to emphasise the meaning of the prose you understand now does this make any sense without capitals or punctuation no it does not need i say any more or do you want a full lesson in english grammar am qualified to do so i hate typing this type of comment

i do not wish to get into any slanging match with anyone i am merely asking a question to which there is a case stated on the subject re non eu nationals on settlement visas who are disregarded persons for the purpose of council tax - i continue to search but cannot find

chantakan wrote:OH dear of dear have been with the internet since commercially available and fully au fait with windows mac os linux etc i find your comments unacceptible i am totally aware of netiquette capitals are used to emphasise the meaning of the prose you understand now does this make any sense without capitals or punctuation no it does not need i say any more or do you want a full lesson in english grammar am qualified to do so i hate typing this type of comment

if you really want to emphasise the meaning of your prose then I'm sure you can find other ways to do it other than WRITING EVERY OTHER word in capitals. People can understand you perfectly well if you just use normal punctuation like everyone else.

There is nothing in my posts above that can be reasonably said to be 'unacceptable'. If you don't want advice other than that which you agree with then you're not going to get very far here.

Greenie has given you some good tips.

obviously wrong forum right text with capitals to emphasise salient points but no understanding thanks and goodbye no punctutaion either and no bold text