Council Tax Money Back Special incl are you one of 100,000 in the wrong band

The Martin Lewis Podcast

BBC

Business

4.2 • 789 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Martin goes through step by step everything you need to know about Council Tax. He explains:

- How to check you are in the right band. - How to challenge your Council Tax band. - The Council Tax deductions you may be entitled to. - How to collect and claim if you are owed Council Tax credit

Martin also gives his response to this week’s Winter Fuel Payment news from the Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

And Mastermind is on how many different cash ISAs can you contribute to in this the current tax year?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.8	Hello, I'm Martin Lewis, and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast.
0:09.3	I do wonder what that's going to be about.
0:11.2	Usually, much of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles.
0:15.2	But there's bonus money-saving tips just for you lucky, lucky podcast listeners.
0:20.2	Today, it's a council tax money back special.
0:23.6	I've got four big checks for you. Check one, in England and Scotland, the council tax band you are in
0:30.7	is still dictated by a stopgap drive-by valuation done back in 1991. So it's no wonder up to 400,000 homes are in the
0:42.0	wrong band and due a rebate of potentially thousands of pounds. I'll talk you through my
0:48.1	check and challenge system on it and we'll hear from people who got big money back.
0:53.4	Check two.
0:54.7	If you're a student, single, a single parent, a carer,
0:58.4	or have a severe mental impairment,
1:00.5	you may be missing out on a council tax discount.
1:04.2	Check three.
1:05.6	Up to two and a quarter million people on lower incomes
1:08.6	are thought to be missing out on a council tax reduction because
1:12.0	they don't know they have to claim it separately. Check four, councils are sitting on over
1:17.9	100 million pounds of their constituents' credits. It's owed to over 800,000 homes. I'll show you
1:25.0	how to check if you're one of them. And if all that wasn't enough,
1:29.7	we talk inheritance tax, winter fuel payments, and the ICER rules too. The last one's in the
1:34.9	mastermind. Will Adrian get it right? Play the theme tune.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.