Hundreds of thousands of council taxpayers could be owed a share of £141million.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert team found as many as 808,000 households are owed money in overpaid council tax.
This unclaimed amount spans up to 349 local authority areas across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The team noted that individuals are “most likely” eligible for a claim if they moved out of a council area in the past 31 years and didn’t pay council tax by direct debit. This could be for one of the following two reasons:
People can sometimes fall into credit when paying council tax, which means they pay more than what’s due.
If someone moved within the same area, any credit owed may have been refunded or applied to their new bill. However, if they moved away without leaving a forwarding address, they’re more likely owed a refund.
Councils attempt to refund credits when they can, but it’s often been more difficult if payments were made by cash, standing order, or cheque rather than direct debit.
There are a few ways people can check if they’re owed a refund, according to MSE. Firstly, people can see if their council offers an online claim form.
To source this, you can just search the name of the council followed by “council tax refund”.
Secondly, people could phone or email the council. However, the MSE team advises people to be sure they’re “likely” to be owed before doing this, to avoid wasting time.
One person found to be owed was landed with a £103 payment, while another was owed as much as £400.
