Council Tax, Benefits and Business Rates

Welcome to the Council Tax, Benefits and Business Rates web pages.

Our "New Items" section contains links to the most current or topical items.

Below is a general introduction to the work of the Customer Accounts and Revenues sections responsible for these services.  To access more detailed information, please use the links to the left of this page, or those contained in the text below

NEW ITEMS

HOUSING BENEFIT  - THE LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE [LHA], a new way of working out your Housing Benefit comes into force from April 2008, please follow the link below to find out more

Local Housing Allowance

BUSINESS RATES - NEW CHARGES FOR EMPTY PROPERTY, with effect from 1/4/2008 the way in which rates are charged for empty property will change, to find out more follow the link below

Empty Property Rates

COUNCIL TAX - NEW FINANCIAL YEARS CHARGES, Annual Council Tax bills for 2008/09 have recently been issued, the links below will take you to a summary of the charges for each band and parish and the Council Tax leaflet that accompanied every annual bill.

Council Tax Charges - 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009                    Council Tax Leaflet 2008/09

Revenues and Benefits is managed by Clive Jones, Director of Customer Services.  Revenues and Benefits has two main areas of activity.

The Customer Accounts  team responsible for -

• Administration of the Housing Benefit (HB).
• Administration of Council Tax Benefit (CTB).
• Provision of general welfare benefit advice.
• Investigations into fraudulent HB and/or CTB claims.
• Council Tax Billing 
• Granting Council Tax Discounts and Exemptions.            

The Revenues team consists of the Non-Domestic Rates team, Income and System Controls and our centralised arrears Recovery team. The section is responsible for - 

• Recovery of all debts due to the Council.
• Administration of Non-Domestic Rates.
• Administration of Mortgages.
• Collection of all revenue and the processing of bank and post office income.
• Administration of the Council's Revenues and Benefits computer systems       

This year, the Division will:

• Collect around £70m in Council Tax payments on behalf of Mid Beds District Council, Beds County Council, the Police Authority and the Town and Parish Councils.
• Collect around £32m in Non-Domestic Rates.
• Collect around £4m in other debts due to the Council.
• Pay out £20m in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.              

Linked documents:

* Download Revenues and Benefits Service Standards (application/pdf; 111kb)