National council tax reduction: non-dependant deductions use Housing Benefit amounts and skip exemptions; pensioner gate ignores benefit exclusions #1934

Found while building #1909. The law cites below were read on legislation.gov.uk on 2026-09-30; re-verify them before encoding.

Non-dependant deductions

council_tax_reduction_individual_non_dep_deduction and council_tax_reduction_non_dep_deductions apply the gov.dwp.housing_benefit.non_dep_deduction amounts to total income. The only eligibility test is age 18 or over and not being in the claimant's benefit unit. Each scheme has its own amounts and exemptions:

• England, SI 2012/2885 Sch 1 para 8. In 2026-27: £15.95 a week in remunerative work, with lower bands of £5.20, £10.60 and £13.30 at £279, £485 and £605; otherwise £5.20.
  • Para 8(6) exempts the applicant where the applicant or partner is blind or gets AA, DLA care, PIP daily living, ADP or AFIP.
  • Paras 8(7)-(8) exempt some non-dependants, for example those on IS, SPC, JSA(IB) or ESA(IR), and those on UC with no earnings.
• Wales, WSI 2013/3029 Sch 1 para 3 (2026-27 sums from WSI 2026/13).
• Scotland, SSI 2012/319 reg 48.

council_tax_reduction_household_has_non_dep_exemption exists but only _legacy.py uses it. For a guarantee credit recipient the award is now exactly liability less these deductions, so the deductions decide the whole award. Example: a pensioner living with a son on £30,000 gets CTR of £0.

Pensioner gate

council_tax_reduction_household_has_pensioner is true when anyone in the claimant's benefit unit is over State Pension age. SI 2012/2885 reg 3(1)(a), WSI 2013/3029 reg 3 and SSI 2012/319 reg 12 also exclude people where they or their partner are on IS, JSA(IB), ESA(IR) or UC, subject to UC carve-outs. This matters for mixed-age couples on UC.

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