Best bits: How to check if you’re paying too much council tax

This is a special best-of episode of the Martin Lewis Podcast, where Producer Simon has picked his favourite topics Martin has covered. Martin Lewis tackles one of the household bills causing confusion for millions: Council Tax. From discounts and exemptions to challenges, refunds and ways to check you're not paying more than you should, Martin shares some of his most useful guidance to help you navigate the system and potentially save money. Plus, in Tell Us Martin reveals the fascinating secrets shared by flight crew workers. From booking tricks to what really happens behind the scenes, hear the insider tips and surprising confessions that you won't want to miss. If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!). So, if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite paper size, what prescription he has in his glasses, or have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:45Martin Lewis?

  They came up with the council tax. And when two middle-aged men get together, there's only one thing they talk about first. This is a substantial amount of money we're talking about for many people who are in the wrong band.

• 1:58Speaker 03

  I just gave some instructions from that.

• 2:00Martin Lewis?

  Did that go on air? Hello, I'm Martin Lewis, and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And as I'm taking a wee break for the summer, welcome to a special Best Bits podcast, selected and put together by the one and only podcast producer, Simon. I'm interested to see myself as going to be in it. It's being chosen from our big topics pods. Much of that comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles. Of course, as its best bits, if you hear me mention any specific products or rates, please do double check that they haven't changed, but big picture should all be good. In this week's best bits, we'll be starting with five different ways to slash council tax, how you check and challenge your band, why you may be missing out on discounts,

• 2:44Martin Lewis?

  and why you may be missing out on support, and the two are different. And our tellers this week is a brilliant one with insider tips from air crew, what they think you need to know when you're planning to go abroad. Play the theme tune.

• 3:04Martin Lewis?

  Now, I promise we're going to get into the podcast proper in a moment. We're going to be talking about council tax, how you check and challenge your band, why you may be missing out on a discount, why you may be missing out on council tax support. But Adrian and I are middle-aged men, and when two middle-aged men get together, there's only one thing they talk about first.

• 3:23Speaker 03

  I just got the giggles then, Martin.

• 3:24Martin Lewis?

  No, I still.

• 3:25Speaker 03

  It occurs to me every time we meet each other. We start off F off air, we have a conversation like we might have in a care home in 20 years' time.

• 3:33Martin Lewis?

  It's just ailment discussion.

• 3:35Speaker 03

  All my rotator cuff's gone, I've got, I'm just falling apart, I've got a cough, I've got head fever, all my back.

• 3:40Martin Lewis?

  I've been, at my age, a man in my early mid 50s. I had turned 54 at the weekend, so I'm early mid 50s who does a lot of exercise. And I think you have to make the choice at our age. Either you're not going to do any exercise, in which case your body's going to fall apart because you're not doing exercise, or you're going to do lots of exercise, in which case your body's going to break because you're doing lots of exercise. So I've been doing this press up thing where I wanted to do 20,000, then I increased my challenge to 25,000 in a year. But my rotator cuff has now gone, so I haven't done press ups for 10 days. Done 8,400 so far this year, but I'm now off the press ups and it's very frustrating.

• 4:15Speaker 03

  But it says something about your psychological makeup because you reduced it in what you'd said, the whole thing, to a binary absurdity, is that you either do nothing and fall to pieces, or do so much you're knackering yourself. There is a happy median. I know it's not as exciting.

• 4:30Martin Lewis?

  I don't understand that. I've never met a clairvoyant, but, sorry, that was a happy median. Terrible pun. No, I am, I'm a binary person. I'm nought or one. I don't have in between.

• 4:40Speaker 03

  You're nought or 100.

• 4:41Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, okay. Well, that wouldn't be binary, Adrian, to be fair. So, and that is how I operate. So my exercise, I, you know, I do cardio every morning. I do gym, not this week because of the rotator cuff, gym session and weight session at least five times a week, and I do my 70 press ups a day, and I'm upset, and I don't like missing. You're doing press ups, so didn't you start on that?

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm just starting. I went to do, I went to do one. I could, but I couldn't do one at first, and I did one. And I'm building on, I'm 60 in March, next March, and I'm, I'm going to be able to do 60 press ups before I'm 60. So I'm doing, I've got up to doing eight every day, and I'm increasing by T C sensible.

• 5:19Martin Lewis?

  But the mistake, the mistake I made, I do three sets of 25 normally, is I started putting my feet up on a chair to do them because I wanted to do incline press ups to get the upper part of the chest, get some work out as well.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Why don't you get Lara to sit on your back while you do it as well? And your daughter, and any family pets, and then your father-in-law and everyone else.

• 5:37Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I know.

• 5:41Speaker 03

  Best we want a council tax, so let's start with the big one. Check in and challenge your council tax band. You've been doing this one for years.

• 5:51Martin Lewis?

  I have indeed.

• 5:52Speaker 03

  I mean, I think it's one of those ones, it's just so depressing. Everybody knows it's a nonsense, the way it was done in the first place. And nobody's got the political will to have a complete, to organise it properly because there'd be losers as well as winners, and politically it'd be disastrous.

• 6:08Martin Lewis?

  In my view, council tax is a broken tax. I mean, let, we need to go back, and there'll be many people here, you know, in their 30s who will not remember how this all happened. So we had riots over what was called the community charge, but better known as the poll tax, literal riots in the street over this tax. And therefore, the government had to come up with in the time, they had to come up with a new form of local taxation to replace it. And they came up with the council tax. And so what they needed to do, because the council tax was effectively based on the value of your house, they had to go around and they had to value properties across England, Scotland and Wales. And this was done in 1991, and without any exaggeration,

• 6:50Martin Lewis?

  it was primarily done by what is called second gear valuations. Two people in a car, one driving, the other an estate agent or a quantity surveyor or someone of that ilk, who had a list of a few details about each property on a piece of paper in front of them, and they went past having a look going, band C, band D, band C, band B. And that's how your council tax ban was originally done. Now, in Wales, they have re-banded. This 1991 valuation, and council tax started in 1993, was meant to be a stop-gap valuation just to set the system up.

• 7:32Martin Lewis?

  But everybody knows what I'm about to say, that 1991 stop-gap valuation, if you are in England or Scotland, is the only mainstream valuation we have ever had, unless you've got a new built house and in certain circumstances, and is still what dictates which council tax band you are in today. Even with all the moves we've had, even with the fact that we knew it was erroneous at the time, and that's why there are an estimated 400,000 homes in England and Scotland in the wrong band, some too high, some too low, and you can, although they don't make it as easy as they should, you can check and challenge your band, but you have to do it carefully.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  Emma wants to know how to do that, so go on.

• 8:15Martin Lewis?

  So let's do the check first, and the check is pretty simple. And I've got two steps to it, and it's very important, and I'll explain why there are two steps to it. The challenge is harder. The first check is to find whether you're in a higher band than a neighbour in a preferably identical, but if not as similar as you can possibly get, property. Now, don't worry, you don't need to go next door and knock on and say, ah, what council tax band is in place? Because it might not make you popular. You can go onto gov.uk for England or the Scottish Assessors Association for Scotland, England and Wales, gov.uk, and you can just look up council tax bands there, both yours and other people's. So you can have a look, and many people will have done this, to see what your band and other people's band is.

• 8:58Martin Lewis?

  So the first check is the neighbour's check. Am I in a higher band than neighbours in an identical property? But this is really, really important, and I've seen some of the questions we've got coming in, which just have misunderstood this point. You are asking for your band to be reviewed. You may be in a higher band than neighbours in a similar or identical property because their band is too low, not because your band is too high. And by reviewing it, you could get their band increased, which you do not want to happen. It will not make you popular to have all your neighbours' bands increased.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  But hang on, but if we're striving towards fairness, then we should want fairness, shouldn't we?

• 9:44Speaker 03

  I mean, look, I totally get your point.

• 9:46Martin Lewis?

  So let me try and answer that in a semi-political way. The system is broken. Our political classes have never had the chutzpah to rework and revalue this system as it desperately needed because it would be incredibly unpopular because there'd be winners and losers. Right, I mean, never mind just fixing the system we've got, you could also look at, because just remember the band you are in, let's be absolutely plain, when you go and look at this on the chart, the band you are in is literally based on council tax bands from back in nineteen ninety-one. You know, a band A property is a property under forty grand in England, under twenty-seven grand in Scotland. You can't buy properties at that amount anymore.

• 10:29Martin Lewis?

  The top band is over three hundred and twenty grand in England, over two hundred and twelve thousand pounds in Scotland. I mean, they just, the numbers are different because it's a different world. And it's not just updating what we have, but you could think of a whole different way and whole different forms of banding. And, you know, people in very big houses don't pay proportionately that much more. This is why the Chancellor's chosen to jemmy it with what's going to be called, being called the mansion tax, which is basically a council tax surcharge. So you're right, Adrian. But I'm not sure that that predicates that individuals should go around snooping and trying to get their neighbours' band increased. I mean, that's an individual's decision if they choose to do it.

• 11:03Speaker 03

  You're trying to get your own decreased and you might have the effect of getting the others increased. But A, would they know it was your fault and B, that implies there are people who, this happens and every now and then, somebody gets an unwelcome letter from saying, well, we've we're bumping your council.

• 11:21Martin Lewis?

  And this is why when I invented my check and challenge system back in two thousand and seven, although we've finessed it, right, and I did it, I always remember doing it, it was because I wrote a little bit about it and I put it in my web forum and I got some responses and people tried it. And then I said, let me know how your experience is, and they came through. And then I wrote a guide on it and said, test this, and then I got loads of feedback. And then I did the guide formally and had a big telly programme, biggest telly audience I've ever had on telly, I think it was about six and a half million. And was using those research and the reason I came up with the second check is to stop that issue. And the second check is one I called the valuation check. Now, it's really important that I say to people that the valuation check is not an evidential check.

• 12:03Martin Lewis?

  When you come to challenging your band, they will not take this into account. This second check is one I invented so that you can work out that on the huge likelihood, it's you who's in too higher band, not your neighbours who are in too lower band. Right, and the valuation check is this. You need to assess your house's value back in nineteen ninety-one. It sounds complicated, but effectively, if you've bought a house since nineteen ninety-one or one of your neighbours has an identical property since nineteen ninety-one, you just need to back calculate it to nineteen ninety-one. And you can do that in a complicated way, using the house price indices. But there is a free tool available online that will do this for you, I'm just not allowed to tell you where it is.

• 12:47Speaker 03

  Right, okay.

• 12:47Martin Lewis?

  Right, so if then that you've done both checks and both indicate, first of all, that you're in a higher band, the neighbour's in an identical or similar properties, and second, that on your back calculation, you are on the high end of your band or possibly in too higher band, then you should be looking at challenging. But if you only pass the first one and it looks like you're in the right band, you need to be aware you could be dropping your neighbour's council tax band.

• 13:14Speaker 03

  Okay, so you challenge it, you inherent in that is that it might end up going up and.

• 13:22Martin Lewis?

  I, and I've had probably tens of thousands of successes of this reported to me since I launched the system and they still come in regularly. In fact, just by chance, just as I'll do it, when I was coming in this morning, I hope I've got it here, where was it? I just read it.

• 13:41Martin Lewis?

  And via the magical podcasting and more technically the magic of editing, I now have that case study. Because I haven't asked for their permission to read it out, as it was just emailed in to me via my website, I'm going to read it to you anonymously. It said, Martin, following your suggestion to check on council tax banding, we submitted evidence over a year ago. Patience paid off because on my husband's birthday in April this year, we received a nine thousand six hundred pounds as a rebate since we moved into the property in nineteen ninety-one and a drop in our council tax band. Thank you for inspiring us to do this. Well, I'm absolutely denied it, anonymous person, that you did that. So the whole point about getting your band lowered is not only is the band itself lowered,

• 14:25Martin Lewis?

  but you get a backdated payout going back to when you moved into the property or nineteen ninety-three, whichever is sooner. So if you moved in in nineteen ninety-nine, you'll go back to nineteen ninety-nine. And that's why this is so important, this conversation, because this is a substantial amount of money we're talking about for many people who are in the wrong band. I have never had anyone who's used my system tell me that their neighbour's band has gone up. I've heard of it going up, but not people who've done both checks.

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 14:57Martin Lewis?

  So my hope is that that valuation check done properly. But you need to understand, and there are people out there doing, going, oh, it doesn't really show, but I'll try anyway. Well, then that's your risk, that's your risk.

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Michelle, we live in a row of fifteen stone cottages, they are grade two listed in a conservation area. All the cottages are council tax B. There's one house in the middle, but exactly the same as the others is band A. How can I challenge it? How can I challenge it, please?

• 15:25Martin Lewis?

  I can't work out that from that, whether you're in the band A or you're in the band B. I mean, if you're in the band A,

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:32Martin Lewis?

  then you're on the, no, she must be in the band B from the nature of the question, because you can't be lower than a band A, so she must be in a band B.

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:39Martin Lewis?

  I mean, it sounds to me very likely that the identical house in the middle is in too lower band. I mean, that would be my starting presumption that all the houses in band B are in the right band and the band A is in too lower band.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:53Martin Lewis?

  So I would be very cautious in this situation. But if you go through this and you find, and you do a valuation check and it looks very, very clearly, I would want in that circumstance, very robust, deep, clear water between your valuation in nineteen ninety-one and a band B valuation, not just at the limit, I'd want you to be well below it, then you could look at doing a challenge. I mean, and I have to say, I have had successes over the years of entire streets being revalued. It is an unheard of.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  Minesh, I've been disputing my band with the local council and not getting anywhere. I had a new build from twenty thirteen on a semi-detached and the neighbour is band B, whereas I'm band C. How is this possible? It's a semi-detached.

• 16:40Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's possible because they valued you differently. So let's just go into.

• 16:44Speaker 03

  Well, how can it make sense? How can there be any logic to it? Well, we don't look for logic.

• 16:48Martin Lewis?

  We don't look for logic, we look for, I mean, I am presuming anybody doing this has been through my first two checks and has clearly passed the neighbour's check and the valuation check. And if you haven't, you must do that. And but on that assumption, you can submit a challenge to your band. Now, in England and Wales, there is a formal challenge and an informal challenge. In Scotland, there is only a formal challenge. For those in Northern Ireland, just as a note, there is no council tax, which is why I'm not talking about Northern Ireland here. Now, the formal challenge, very frustratingly, can be done by whether you own or rent. But in general terms, you must have lived in the property for six months or less. If renters are challenging, by the way, by courtesy, you should notify your landlord.

• 17:32Martin Lewis?

  There are some other reasons you can do a formal challenge, which is a fundamental change in the property, say from house to flats, change in its use, the party's now business, for example, the local area's changed, you've just had a nightclub built next door. Or in Scotland only, there've been significant property price drops where you are. So just as an aside, this is one of those life financial management rulings everyone needs to remember. Whenever you move home, remember to check your council tax band and do the check and challenge within the first six months because the formal challenge is so much easier than the informal challenge route. So that's my first point. Within the formal challenge, you don't actually need to submit evidence.

• 18:15Martin Lewis?

  You do within the informal challenge and there are good guides online of how to do an informal challenge. But the big thing that people in England and Wales can do that you need to know about, and this is the powerhouse improvement that I added to my guide about two years ago, is you need to request what is called your PAD, your property attribute data, which is held on the gov.uk site, you are absolutely able to go and get it. You go on to, it's got a, in the box when you go online, it's, I think my band is wrong. And the text on the next page add, I want to request my property attribute data. The online form will ask you a few questions.

• 18:56Martin Lewis?

  Now, what this is all about is the property attribute data is literally what the valuation office agency who sorts council tax knows about your house. It will include its age or period, its type, semi-detached, end of terrace, its floor area, number of bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, number of floors. And if you find that the PAD is wrong, that is a big light. And we've had quite a lot of people who are in the wrong band have looked at their PAD and gone, no, that's not correct about my house. And that is, that's the strongest possible evidence. Now, you know, let's be plain here. If you're saying you're in too higher band and it says you've got two bedrooms and you've got four bedrooms, that's not the right way round. You know, if it says you've got four bedrooms, you've got two bedrooms, that is the right way round. I mean, let's be sensible about what we're talking.

• 19:41Martin Lewis?

  But a crucial stage, Minesh, you have to get your PAD details and you have to go and check, are your PAD details correct about the property? And if they are, well, that's very strong. And what you then need to do is you then need to then go and identify neighbouring or nearby properties. This is for informal, you don't have to do this in a formal challenge, but I would do it anyway. You then, and when I say in this step, identify neighbouring or nearby properties, that this isn't like you did in the checks, we're now in the challenge phase, this is going to take real work. You need to be identifying up to five addresses in the same street or estate. Though in the countryside, the valuation office agency will consider similar properties within an area as wide as ten miles. They must have the same style or similar features, so semi-detached house must be compared with semi-detached house.

• 20:27Martin Lewis?

  They must be of a similar age, don't compare the new build with a Victorian one. They must be of a similar size, comparable properties can be smaller and larger within ten percent. And you're then looking and saying, look at all these details, the details you have on me are wrong. I'm going to give you a comparator to five of that per houses and that is why I think I'm in the wrong band. So, look, and we need to be honest, we're on the radio here. This is a process and you will be able to find step by step help and templates to do this process online. Really what we're talking about today is the clarion call of what you should or shouldn't be doing, whether this is or isn't right for you. So the next stage to go through is to go and use that, the online help that's available. Available to get you through this.

• 21:10Speaker 03

  Nicola, re-challenging banding in a new build house. In terms of finding similar properties, which are the implication being that the new build is different to the surrounding ones. Can I use, say, a house built in the 1970s? It feels like new builds get higher banding just because they're new. And when you get the banding notification, there's absolutely no explanation of how it was determined.

• 21:31Martin Lewis?

  None of this system is transparent or good. I mean, it shouldn't work this way. And interestingly, one of the things, we've talked before on the show, I got the government to change council tax debt collection recently, and we'll be talking later about discounts, including severe mental impairment, which we got them to change some rules as well. One of my requests was to get rid of the formal informal rules where you have to do the challenge within six months, because I think it's ridiculous, because people don't, you know, people don't know how it's been going on. They will look at that, but they haven't done it yet. So, look, you're right. If you're in a new building, you're the only new build home in your area, it's really going to be very difficult to do this. And I don't think it's fair to say, I have no evidence to say that new build homes are valued on too higher band. But clearly, new build is a very difficult comparator to an older house if you are the only one.

• 22:16Martin Lewis?

  And people won't like me saying this, but there's a bit of shrug your shoulders here. There's a bit of the system's broken, you do what you can do, and if you can't do any more, you can't do any more.

• 22:27Martin Lewis?

  No, that's it.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  Willow, I need to change my band. I need to change my band. I've no idea where to start finding the price of my property from years ago. Willow's situation is they're in a row of terrace houses, which are in band B, and the rest of the very long road is in band A.

• 22:44Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so she's in band B, everyone's in band A. If your house has not been bought or sold since 1993, well then, if you're telling me they're all identical properties, one of those houses on those street will have been bought or sold since 1993. You go on to the, you know, the right moves of this world and the property price trackers, you can find what other properties have been bought and sold for. Then you need to convert it back to 1991. So you're just looking, find the most, if your house is, you've been in it a long time, find the most similar house to yours. And in fact, if there are three or four that have sold, get all of the prices, work out what they were worth back in 1991, you know, get the prices from the property websites that are, it's free, you can just do it online, it's dead easy, and then convert them all

• 23:29Martin Lewis?

  into 1991 prices and take an average and see if that works for you.

• 23:32Speaker 03

  Okay, great.

• 23:37Speaker 03

  The council tax, do you tell us? Okay, next, I'm just getting some instructions from Barb after.

• 23:42Martin Lewis?

  Did that go on air?

• 23:45Martin Lewis?

  Shall we just make, Adrian said, I forgot what we're doing, what we're doing now. So I went, we're going to say we're coming back to council tax, but we'll do tell us first. So, but, so why can't you do that? Because nobody noticed.

• 23:56Speaker 03

  The tell us is, the tell us is great. Go on, tell us about the tell us.

• 24:01Martin Lewis?

  So, the original question was, tell us, do you work for an airline, hotel or overseas travel business? If you do, what are the biggest mistakes people make when flying or going abroad? And what are your top tips? The response was absolutely fantastic, I have to tell you.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  I'll start with the first one, because I really want to do the third one. It's one of my favourites to ever tell us responses. So, okay, so, insurance, says Simon. Speaking as aircrew takes you abroad. Also, don't get too drunk before you board the plane. You can be refused boarding. Don't vape, don't misbehave. The aircraft could end up in divert, have you disembark, ruin your holiday. Basically, you could get your pants sued off as well. It's only a few hours, enjoy the flight and come and say hi to us at the front end once we land. Sounds fair to me.

• 24:47Martin Lewis?

  Absolutely right. And insurance is important, because, let's just remember my golden rule, you get insurance as soon as you book, or if you've already booked and you haven't got it, you get it as soon as you hear me say this, because half the point of travel insurance is to cover you if something happens before you go that stops you going.

• 25:05Speaker 03

  Buy it now to start now, not to start on the day.

• 25:08Martin Lewis?

  No, buying it now to start on the day that you go on a single trip policy is fine. So if you're going away at the end of August, you'd buy it today with the dates, the end of August. On an annual policy, you need to have a contiguous one in place. So if you have one now, if your annual policy ended the end of August and you were going in September, most policies would cover you if something happened now to stop you going in September, even though it was after the period. But you'd want to be buying now a policy to start the day after your existing annual policy stopped, so that you're covered all the way through, and you'd want to have that in place now too. Okay, Steve.

• 25:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:40Martin Lewis?

  Working for TUI at Manchester. Scary how many people are turning up to the airport with a due to expire passport. So let's be really plain about the passport check here. So this is me, not Steve now. There are two checks. For the, on the day you enter the country, there needs to be at least six months left before the expiry date, or three months if you're going to the EU. And even so, if you're going to the EU, you need to check, will your passport be under 10 years old? So, because it used to work that you could get your passport, if you had eight months left on your passport when you were renewing, you could get that eight months added to your new one. So your new one would last 10 years and eight months.

• 26:25Martin Lewis?

  It means that you could be more than three months away from renewal of your passport, but your passport be over 10 years old, and that can stop you having entry. And I genuinely have people who get in touch with me, who this has happened to, who have been denied boarding on the plane, which is bad, or worse, they've got on the plane and they've been denied entry when they land and sent back. Check your passport date. Steve is right. You do, Sarah.

• 26:48Speaker 03

  Sarah, said I work for an airline. Biggest mistake ever is people going to the toilet on the aircraft with no shoes on. Let's not dwell on that, but we hear you.

• 26:59Martin Lewis?

  I'm, I'm one of those people.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Really?

• 27:02Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I'm not sure I will be from now on. Sometimes you're taking your shoes off, you know, you're tired, you're sleeping, you're suddenly neither you, you go, and you're not thinking.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  But on a private jet, it's different.

• 27:11Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, right. I've never been on a private jet. One day I'll do it.

• 27:14Speaker 03

  I have actually, no, I have.

• 27:16Martin Lewis?

  Oh, so you made the joke about me.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Well, I have, no, it was when I was, a couple of times when we were covering football, and it was just cheaper to get the ITV team, I think San Sebastian, but it's very cramped, very cramped, I'd say. I was, it was a nice experience.

• 27:32Martin Lewis?

  We were all feeling pretty terrible for you, I'll be honest.

• 27:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, but you're not missing much.

• 27:36Martin Lewis?

  Please do get in touch if you feel sorry for Adrian, or think of anything to cheer him up about his cramped experience on a private jet. Gemma, cabin crew here. Travelling without simple painkillers. Not all airlines can give you paracetamol or others without a doctor present. It's much easier if you have your own with you. Some passengers really think the aircraft first aid kit is a personal pharmacy. Yeah, I mean, I always take painkillers with me, just in case.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Alex, don't pack your medication or keys in your hold luggage. Always bring spare underwear and a change of clothes in your carry-on. Do you know what I would, what I, it's relaxed me no end, is putting, you know, one of the tracker devices, an Apple tag, putting one of those in your, in your hold luggage.

• 28:23Martin Lewis?

  Well, I mean, it will help you locate where your hold luggage is, but if you're, if it's gone somewhere else.

• 28:27Speaker 03

  If it's on to Cancun, then you're in Barcelona, then obviously it's a problem.

• 28:30Martin Lewis?

  It's still not helping you, yeah. So I, the change of underwear is a good one. I think that's really important, and your medication, absolutely. Sam, used to work for an airline. So many people would get on a late night flight from a winter sun destination, wearing little more than a bikini, and then wonder why they were freezing on the plane and on landing back in the UK too. And no, we do not have any blankets we can give you.

• 28:52Speaker 03

  Right, got it. Ali, work for BA complaints. Don't complain your ice melted too fast, that's science. Well, in first class, you're paying a good amount, Ali. I think you're entitled to slow melting ice.

• 29:07Martin Lewis?

  Shall we get back to council tax now? Because we've done council tax check and challenge, and as I say, if you're looking at that, go and step by step it. But there are lots of discounts and council tax support that people are missing out on as well.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  Okay. So we should probably move to that. Talk us through the basics of that then.

• 29:19Martin Lewis?

  So we'll do council tax discounts now. This does get, I'm sorry, this does get a little complicated to explain. I'm going to try and do my best. So, council tax is based on how many people live in the property. So the standard number is two or more. If it's two or more, you pay the full council tax. If it's one, you get the single person discount, which is 25%. But then, there are categories of people who are disregarded for council tax. In other words, you, in a good way, that's not a bad way, in a good way, you're disregarded, you don't count. Therefore, if...

• 29:59Martin Lewis?

  Two adults are living there, but one of them doesn't count. Then you effectively get the 25% discount. That's the simplest way to explain, although it does get more complicated. But have that as the big picture starter. So let's go through the different categories of discounted for council tax, not counted as a, as an adult. Well, someone under age 18 is pretty obvious. Full-time students on a minimum one-year course, full-time is a, is another obvious one. And then the next one is the severe mental impairment discount, which is a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning, which appears to be permanent. Now, I, I hate that term, SMI. I actually use say SMI because I don't like saying severe mental impairment.

• 30:43Martin Lewis?

  They are changing it as part of the, the results of some of the things that we've looked at campaigning to a severe cognitive impairment. And to get a severe mental impairment, massively undercommunicated, nowhere near enough people know about this. Common conditions include dementia, Alzheimer's, severe strokes, severe Parkinson's. You have to be medically certified as having an SMI. So a doctor is going to have to certify that you have one. And often it'll be your partner or your loved ones who are, who are getting you that certification. And you need to be receiving a qualifying benefit. Now, interestingly, on SMI, not all the qualifying benefits are means tested. Attendance allowance is a non-mains tested benefit for people who need help with living during the day or night.

• 31:26Martin Lewis?

  So it is still possible anyone can get an SMI discount, even with that receiving a qualifying benefit, because there are some non-mains tested benefits in there. So it's not all about the money you have. So those are the three, anyway. Under 18s, full-time students, SMI. And I should note, another one of the big wins we had recently, and I am showing off about it because I've been talking about this for a decade, and we've got Wales to do it first, now England is going to be following suit next April. I've said to you before, this sounds trivial, Adrian, but every council's under-publicised the SMI, and then their forms are all different, which makes it incredibly difficult for someone like me to give guidance of how you fill a form in, right, for many vulnerable people. And the government from next April has agreed it will have one form and one piece of publication. So wherever you go, it will be a standard format.

• 32:10Martin Lewis?

  So me and Carers UK and Alzheimer's, we can all actually give you nice ED guidance to filling in the form, which you can't do at the moment because every form's different. Not, not every form's different. Lots of councils have different forms. Then, so you've got those three, then you've got live-in carers, that's someone who is unpaid for caring for over 35 hours a week and not caring for your spouse, partner or a child under age 18. So then you are a carer. So let's go through it. If there are two adults, qualifying adults, living in the property, even if there's also full-time students, even if there's also people with SMIs, you pay the full amount. The other people don't matter. You've just got to have two, and if there are two qualifying adults.

• 32:50Martin Lewis?

  If there's one adult with an under 18 or a full-time student and/or a carer, it's 25% off. If the only people living in the house are someone with an SMI and a carer, which is a common situation, you get 50% off. So that's the sort of one that doesn't make sense in a way. And if only discounted people are living together, for example, a household of full-time students, you do not pay any council tax. If someone with an SMI is living with an adult, a single adult, you would get 25% off, another common situation. And in some cases, these discounts can be backdated, but it's council by council. Something else we've asked them for that they haven't decided yet is standardised backdating rules.

• 33:34Martin Lewis?

  Wales has it, and Wales backdates since the time you were eligible to claim.

• 33:37Speaker 03

  Okay, we've had questions on all this. Anna, how about getting the powers that be to give us a single, or single peeps a 50% discount off council tax instead of the 25%? It's not fair.

• 33:48Martin Lewis?

  I'm going to do an explanation on this, not a judgement.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 33:52Martin Lewis?

  When council tax was first set up, it was meant to be based on the value of the property. The previous local taxation, the community charge, was based solely on the number of people in the property. So when, they tried to get away from that because of the riots that we talked about earlier. But then there was a big lobby that said, hold on, this isn't fair. What happens if you've got one person living in a three-bedroom property? You know, they're going to be paying the same as six adults sharing that same property. So there was a sop done for that, which was the single person discount, the 25% off. Now, people always say to me, why isn't it 50% off? And then, and I'm not, I'm not arguing that it should or shouldn't be, that's a political decision. But I'm not sure why people, well, I know why people say 50%. They think, well, two adults in a home, therefore, if there's only one adult, it should be half.

• 34:37Martin Lewis?

  But who says there are two adults in a home? Some homes, you've got two 19-year-olds living there and two, and their parents, that's four adults. You've got a household of young people sharing, and there are 10 of them, that's 10 adults. So the idea that there are two adults living in all homes, therefore, if there's one adult living in a home, you should get a 50% discount. That logic doesn't 100% stand up, although I know why people say it. But the answer is, why is it only 25%? Because this was done in 1991 and hasn't been changed since, and the system is broken.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  Pirani, I'm a carer for my father, we live together, he gets his pension, attendance allowance, and I get carers allowance. Should we be able to get a council tax reduction?

• 35:13Martin Lewis?

  Well, if there's only the two of you in the household, I would think you're entitled to at least the 25% if your father has a severe mental impairment. Now, the fact he gets attendance allowance signifies to me there's quite a chance he would be due a severe mental impairment discount. So you tick the getting a qualifying benefit. It is about a doctor certifying that you have, let me just check the exact phrasing, it is a severe mental impairment that affects someone's social functioning. Right? So if a doctor will sign that off, because just getting attendance allowance doesn't mean you get SMI, you need it to be signed as an SMI, well, then you're certainly entitled to a 25% discount and possibly entitled to a 50% discount if you're a carer in the

• 35:58Martin Lewis?

  right circumstances.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  Helen says, there is a reduction of one band available for people who have to live downstairs in a two-story house due to ill health. This isn't well-publicised.

• 36:08Martin Lewis?

  I was coming to it, so I'm delighted to get that question. Basically, if you have disabilities, physical disabilities generally, then, and you have to make adaptations to your home because of physical disabilities, you can ask, and you have to repeat this every year, actually, it's one of the, the others are sort of automatic each year, this one you have to ask every year for a reduction of one band level, and it's worth looking at for people in that situation.

• 36:30Speaker 03

  Okay. Claire, are, what happened there?

• 36:34Martin Lewis?

  The desk just lowered. I think you pressed a button to lower the desk. It sort of touched the top of my knee.

• 36:40Speaker 03

  Unless there's an earthquake.

• 36:42Martin Lewis?

  No, I think it was definitely a desk quake.

• 36:44Speaker 03

  Shambles. Claire.

• 36:49Martin Lewis?

  That doesn't count as adjusting your property, by the way, is that, that's what you're doing? I mean, I'll lower the desk.

• 36:54Speaker 03

  Are local authorities allowed to make it deliberately difficult for you to apply for SMI exemption? I live in Cornwall, and there's nowhere on their website to make an application for this, or if there is, it's very well hidden.

• 37:05Martin Lewis?

  Look, I, I mean, I first launched my severe mental impairment campaign, it was, I think it's over a decade ago, and we basically cold-called councils to ask about it, and half of the staff back then hadn't heard of the discount. So I think things have improved, but nowhere near enough, which is why we've requested this sort of standardised leaflets, standardised application form that should go on every council, and that'll be coming in from next April. I mean, just to put this in context, this week separately, the carers discount on council tax, we did a spot check of pretty much every council about three months ago, and found that of one in five councils in England had incorrect information, misleading information about the council allowance, 69 councils. And they were basically missing out, they hadn't updated their doc data until, since

• 37:50Martin Lewis?

  it was, I think it was about 2013 when the rules changed. So all the list of who could qualify, they were just missing lots of the major categories. They have now on the back of us publicising it and writing to every council, fix that. That's my money-saving expert team, I need, I think they deserve the credit for that brilliant kit, did all the work, well done, Kit, you're a star on that. And we've got them all to change it. But there's still many people who've gone and read those websites and had incorrect information. This is commonplace. What I would say is, yes, go on to your council's websites to look at the discounts, but it is worth looking at other independent sources too, because council websites and council forms are, not all of them are good enough. Simple as that. That's why I do the campaigning.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  Okay. Do you want to talk about council tax support?

• 38:30Martin Lewis?

  I do. This is so important. Up to 2.25 million people on lower incomes are missing out on council tax support, worse up to £1,500. This is separate from discounts. Every council runs its own council tax reduction scheme, so what you get depends on where you live. There is no standardised definition, and there's no standardised, you know, amount that you get reduced. Some councils will cut your bill by up to 100%. It is a jungle of variation, so it really depends on each council. Now, the biggest mistake people make about this is they think, if I'm eligible for universal credit, which is, you know, the catch-all national benefit from, then I'll, I'll get my council tax support.

• 39:15Martin Lewis?

  Uh-uh. They are totally separate systems. You have to apply for council tax support separately. And the people who are likely to get it are those people who are on universal credit or pension credit. But you won't get it automatically, and that's why so many people miss out. In England and Wales, gov.uk will show you your council's details, and then you can then go to it and apply. In Scotland, mygov.scottland. You may be asked to provide evidence, for example, if you've got a low household income, you might need to prove your identity, your rental, your mortgage payments, your income and savings. But I think if, you know, if you're generally somebody who's on universal credit and on a lower income, you should check out your council's criteria for council tax support. I mean, two and a quarter million people are likely, it's impossible to say because

• 39:59Martin Lewis?

  it's council by council, missing out on that. And it can be big money.

• 40:03Speaker 03

  Okay. Have we got time for a question?

• 40:05Martin Lewis?

  Let's do that, yeah, go on, very quickly.

• 40:06Speaker 03

  Claire, my daughter and I are both low income and get universal credit. I've asked my local councillor if we're entitled to a discount, but not heard back. What should I do?

• 40:13Martin Lewis?

  Get in touch with them and persevere.

• 40:19Martin Lewis?

  But we're not quite done because we're going to do a few more tellers because they're fun. Do you work for an airline? One of the big mistakes people make when going with just they were so good. These are all flight crew ones are great. Kelly, cabin crew here. If you have a food allergy or diet preference, please pre-book your meal and come armed with snacks, especially for long haul. Contrary to belief, we do not have a supermarket we can nip to when you have nothing to eat. There is only limited space on an aircraft, people.

• 40:45Speaker 04

  Simon, great name by the way, from a flight crew perspective, if you put anything in the hotel safe, then put one of your work shoes in there too. Then you won't leave it behind unless you go to work wearing one shoe.

• 40:56Martin Lewis?

  I see. So that's actually a tip from flight crew for flight crew. I like it. Adriana, as cabin crew for many years, make sure you can lift your onboard luggage. The crew are not there to lift it for you, although they often do helpfully, as do many other passengers, if you ask nicely.

• 41:13Speaker 04

  George is a pilot. He's got one about the Canary Islands. A lot of tourists book the residence only price and create a big fuss when they have to pay the full fare at check-in.

• 41:22Martin Lewis?

  Sarah, I've worked at an airport for more than 15 years and you would not believe the silly things people say and do, thinking they're being funny. It's quite horrifying. Oh my gosh, I hope she doesn't listen to this podcast. I'm in trouble. And to all those people who, when asked if they say, have you got any sharp items in their luggage, say, only the wife's tongue. And if they think they're the first to say it, you're not. We hear the same stuff hundreds of times a day. And on a more serious note, read the terms and conditions, play by the rules. If your hand luggage dimensions state a certain size, then stick to it. The dimensions don't mean a case of that size plus five centimetres just because it's a soft bag. Two left, Simon, let's do two more.

• 42:01Speaker 04

  Yeah. So Jill, she works in cabin crew. Don't leave only 40 minutes transfer time between flights, especially at London Heathrow.

• 42:09Martin Lewis?

  And Mary, always be nice to the people who serve your food. Smiles and a gentle ask will get you further than a grumpy face. Smile sweetly and ask, any chance of an upgrade? So that's it. That's the end of our flight crew secrets. Thank you so much to everybody who replied to that. Really interesting to listen to it from your perspective.

• 42:34Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week. We tend to put out a new podcast every Thursday and Monday. Our Monday one is our question time episode, where you can ask me absolutely anything and everything you like, within reason, close brackets. I'm not sure I open the brackets, but I close them anyway. That's what matters. If you've enjoyed today's show, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast and why not subscribe? And hey, why not leave us a review? A nice one would be lovely. Then your pockets will be pleased with you. And if you haven't enjoyed it and you've been listening this long, you've only got yourself to blame.

• 43:23Speaker 05

  Martin Lewis is the founder of moneysavingexpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

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  bots had been deleted from the internet. But the truth might actually be a lot scarier. For our take, join me, Jess Maddox. And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.