Council tax benefit meaning

In this issue: Spring Budget 2024 Probate Court of Protection UK taxes for Private Client HMRC Manuals updates Tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance Digital assets and cryptoassets Charity and philanthropy Updated HMRC guidance: How the tax system operates for charities Contentious trusts and estates International Question of the week Additional Private Client updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts LexTalk®Private Client: a Lexis®PSL community New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q&As Useful information Spring Budget 2024 On Wednesday, 6 March 2024, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented the government’s Spring Budget. For commentary on consultations and statements pertinent to Private Client practitioners, please see News Analyses: Spring Budget 2024—Private Client analysis and Video analysis—Spring Budget 2024: Key Private Client announcements. For coverage of corporate tax matters, consult News Analyses: Spring Budget 2024—Tax analysis and Video...

In this issue: Children's social care Public procurement Social housing Governance Social care Local government finance Education Healthcare Planning Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q&A Children's social care Supreme Court dismisses appeal upholding care order procedures (The Father v Worcestershire CC) In The Father v Worcestershire County Council [2025] UKSC 1, the Supreme Court rejected the father’s challenge to the care order that placed his children with foster carers. He had applied for a writ of habeas corpus, asserting the order was made without jurisdiction and that the children were unlawfully deprived of their liberty. The Court of Appeal had already refused his bid, indicating that any objection to a care order must be pursued using the mechanisms in the Children Act 1989 and the Family Procedure Rules, not via habeas corpus. The Supreme Court endorsed that approach, noting the children were not detained but living...

In this issue: Probate Court of Protection Spouses, civil partners and cohabitees UK taxation for Private Client Updates to HMRC Manuals Tax avoidance, evasion and non‑compliance Private Client regulatory compliance Budgets and Finance Bills Digital assets and cryptoassets Disputed trusts and estates Pensions, insurance and tax‑efficient investments International matters Question of the Week Daily and weekly news updates LexTalk®Private Client: a Lexis+® community New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q&As Useful information Probate Executor misconduct: injunctions, removal and indemnities (Re Organ; House v Helme) The court granted an order restraining two executors (one a solicitor) from dissipating Estate assets until the claim for their removal was determined. It then appointed a trust corporation to act in their stead, required them to pay the beneficiaries’ costs assessed on the indemnity basis, and concluded the executors had no right of indemnity for...

Types of debts to be recovered by local authorities A local authority debt recovery team manages the collection of sums owed, conducted by the in-house unit or by supervising outsourced providers, spanning numerous liabilities including the following: council tax—a household levy imposed by local authorities in Britain, determined by a property’s assessed value and the number of residents. Refer to Practice Notes: Council tax and Council Tax Enforcement non-domestic rates—also called business rates, collected by billing authorities to support local services. Refer to Practice Note: National non-domestic rates—billing recovery, exemptions and reliefs. parking fines—penalties for unauthorised parking (eg parking in disabled bays, on double yellow lines, etc), exceeding permitted time limits, or parking without a ticket sundry debts—smaller amounts linked to unpaid rents, former tenants’ arrears, funeral expenses, and overpayments of housing benefit adult social care debt—arising where a financial assessment decides a person is responsible for all or part of the cost of their care and support needs. Refer to Practice...

ARCHIVED This Practice Note summarises the state support potentially available to older clients and clarifies how means testing operates for both income and capital. It also considers the rules on deliberate deprivation of income or assets, both for social security benefits and for local authority care charges under the Care Act 2014. Benefits for older people fall into three strands: contributory (dependent on sufficient National Insurance contributions), non‑contributory and non‑means‑tested (based on status such as age or disability), and means‑tested (assessed against the claimant’s income and capital). Relevant Benefits Pension and pension related benefits New State Pension Graduated Retirement Benefit (historic entitlement) Guaranteed Minimum pension—contracted out rights Pension Credit—guarantee credit and saving credit War pensions—where applicable Disability—related benefits Attendance Allowance Personal Independence Payment (for those below State Pension age) Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit Means-tested benefits Pension Credit Housing Benefit—for claimants over the State Pension age...

Part of the deputy’s responsibility One duty of a deputy is to ensure P receives every state benefit they are entitled to. The OPG Deputy Standards, published in February 2023, set out actions a deputy should take on P’s behalf. Under Standard 4(a), a deputy must submit claims for any benefits P qualifies for within three months of the deputyship order being received. The deputy should also review P’s benefits at least once a year. The main benefits for which P is most likely to be eligible are considered in detail below. Although some state benefits are means-tested, if P’s resources stem from a personal injury damages award, and are managed by a deputy or trustees within a personal injury trust, those funds are ring-fenced and therefore cannot be counted in the assessment. Both the capital and any income produced by those funds should be disregarded for this purpose. Benefits can be paid to P, to their deputy, or to another authorised person, for example one of...