Almost 2.8million households are missing out on council tax help worth £1,000 a year on average.
Each council runs a Council Tax Support scheme (sometimes called Council Tax Reduction) where you could qualify for money off your bill.
You may be eligible for help if you’re on a low income or claiming benefits - although the exact criteria does vary between local authorities.
In some cases, you could be entitled to up to 100% off your council tax bill.
But research previously published by Policy in Practice shows 2,729,000 households are not claiming this support when they could be.
They further claim the average award per year going unclaimed is £1,003, adding up to £2,873,000 for all the households missing out.
You can apply for Council Tax Support if you own your home, rent, are unemployed or working.
Use the Gov.uk website to help find your local council website.
If you’re not entitled to help through a Council Tax Support scheme, there may be other ways you can reduce your bill.
Can you claim a council tax discount?
Check with your council to see if you are entitled to a council tax discount.
It all depends on your living arrangements, with discounts ranging from 25% to 100% off your bill.
As an example, if you're the only adult living at your address then you could be entitled to 25% off your council tax bill.
The same goes if there is one adult living with someone else who is "disregarded".
This could be one student and one adult living together, or a live-in carer who looks after someone with a disability.
You could get 50% off your council tax bill if everyone in your home is “disregarded” from this bill.
And the maximum 100% discount could apply to someone who has a severe mental impairment and lives alone, or if you live in an all-student household.
Can you challenge your council tax band?
You could be owed thousands of pounds back - plus you'll pay lower bills going forward - if it turns out you're in too high of a council tax band.
But you need to do your research first, as if it turns out you should be in a lower band, you'll end up paying more - and your neighbours could be bumped up too.
First, check what council tax band your neighbours are on by comparing similar homes of size and value.
You can check council bands online for free, so you don't need to ask your neighbours if you're not on friendly terms.
Use the Gov.uk website to do this for houses in England and Wales, or the Scottish Assessors Association for Scotland.
However, keep in mind that it could just be that your entire street is in the wrong banding.
The second check is to work out how much your property was worth in 1991 - this is when council tax was launched by the Government.
MoneySavingExpert has a free calculator tool to help you do this, as well as a table on what band you should have been put in.
Once you've done these checks, if you think you’ve got a good case then you can submit your claim to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales, or Scottish Assessors Association (SAA) for Scotland.
If your claim is unsuccessful, you can appeal to an independent valuation tribunal.
