Discretionary Council Tax
Case reference FOI2026/01174
Received 21 July 2026
Published 27 July 2026
Request
This is an information request regarding discretionary council tax and other council tax discounts for recipients of benefits.
Please include the following information for the following years: 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26
* Total amount spent on discretionary council tax relief per year
* Total number of applications received by the council for discretionary council tax relief?
Please break it down by
* Successful
* Unsuccessful
* Pending
* Provide the number of successful applications for 100% council tax relief due to the discretionary council tax relief
* Provide a list of all other council tax discount schemes that apply to people on benefits.
* Provide a breakdown of the number of successful applications per alternative benefit pathway resulting in council tax discounts
* Provide separately the number of successful applications per alternative benefit pathway for 100% council tax relief.
Response
Please include the following information for the following years: 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26
Total amount spent on discretionary council tax relief per year
2021-2022: 208,178.84
2022-2023: 1,046.69
2023-2024: 125,001.81
2024-2025: 3,407.66
2025-2026: 3,319.83
Total number of applications received by the council for discretionary council tax relief?
Please break it down by
Successful
Unsuccessful
Pending
Information Not Held - The "DHP Unsuccessful" table does not distinguish between HB DHP & DCTS, and we have not been able to find statistics on successful awards. Therefore, we can only list the number of accounts where an award has been made, so, if an account or a claim received more than 1 such award/payment, each would be counted. Consequently, we request that you accept this as "best endeavours".
2021-2022: 976
2022-2023: 3,965
2023-2024: 1,203
2024-2025: 34
2025-2026: 14
Provide the number of successful applications for 100% council tax relief due to the discretionary council tax relief
2021-2022: 0
2022-2023: 1
2023-2024: 2
2024-2025: 3
2025-2026: 4
Provide a list of all other council tax discount schemes that apply to people on benefits. Information Not Held
Provide a breakdown of the number of successful applications per alternative benefit pathway resulting in council tax discounts Information Not Held
Provide separately the number of successful applications per alternative benefit pathway for 100% council tax relief. Information Not Held
Documents
This is Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.