Here is up to date information from Ashford Borough Council regarding Council Tax payments.
https://www.ashford.gov.uk/your-community/emergency-planning/health-and-pandemics/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-service-disruption/ and click on the council tax and benefits bit. It says
If your income has been affected by the recent Coronavirus outbreak, and you are unable to pay your council tax, there are several options:
- If your savings are below £10k (£16k for pensioners) you may be entitled to Council Tax Reduction. To estimate your entitlement you can visit https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
- If you do qualify for help towards paying your Council Tax, you can make a claim online
- If your savings are above £10k or you don’t qualify for Council Tax Reduction, but your income has dropped or you are experiencing cash flow problems you can contact us and we can either reduce your instalments temporarily, or spread them over 12 months rather than the usual 10 months. To discuss your Council Tax instalments please contact revenues@ashford.gov.uk
- If you are still struggling to make payments during this time you can make an application for an Exceptional Circumstances Payment. You don’t need to qualify for Council Tax Reduction to make a claim for Exceptional Circumstances Payment.
- If you would like to talk through your options our Welfare Intervention Officers can help
This is the official line if people can’t pay. We can move their April 2020 & May 2020 instalments to February 2021 and March 2021 if Tax payers request this, however we are not applying a blanket policy because some people have not been affected financially by the covid-19 outbreak and are still able to pay their bills. If people need us to either reduce their instalments for say 3 months, (and that can be reduced to nil) then they can request this by e mailingrevenues@ashford.gov.uk or calling 01233 331111. We will be looking at this on a case by case basis but we realise we need to be lenient at the moment. If people are suffering financially they should be encouraged to claim Council Tax Reduction https://www.ashford.gov.uk/benefits-and-council-tax/benefits/claiming-benefits/ and/ or Exceptional Circumstances Paymenthttps://www.ashford.gov.uk/benefits-and-council-tax/council-tax/council-tax-reduction/council-tax-exceptional-circumstances-payment-scheme/
The Welfare Intervention Officers will be happy to talk through residents financial issues and give them advice on what to claim and how to claim it. They can e mail them welfareinterventionteam@ashford.gov.ukor contact them via the websitehttps://www.ashford.gov.uk/benefits-and-council-tax/benefits/welfare-reform/