This Must Not Stand
No One Should Pay More Council Tax Because Their Benefit Changed Its Name
Written by Alistair Chisholm, Newcastle City Council's Disability Champion.
Up and down the country, disabled people who were moved onto Universal Credit have been sent council tax bills hundreds of pounds higher than last year.
Lynn and David Bleakley are a severely disabled couple in Hertfordshire. Last year they paid no council tax. This year their council sent them a bill for more than £1,500. Their income had not gone up by a penny. All that changed was the name of their benefit. In February the High Court ruled that this was unlawful disability discrimination.
As Newcastle City Council's Disability Champion, I want to be sure no one in our city is caught in the same trap, and that any harm already done is put right. I want to explain what's happening, why it's unfair, and what the Council can do about it: quickly, for the people already hit, and then properly, so it doesn't happen again.
What has changed
The government has finished moving people off the old benefits — including the sickness and disability benefit known as ESA — and onto Universal Credit. People were promised they wouldn't lose out, through a top-up called transitional protection. But that promise covers the benefit from the Department for Work and Pensions, not their council tax.
The problem is simple. When the council worked out how much council tax support someone should get, the old disability benefits were largely ignored. The Universal Credit that replaced them often is not. So the council treats people as though they can afford more, cuts their support, and the bill goes up, even though nothing has changed in what they actually have to live on. Only the name of their benefit has changed.
In some schemes the transitional protection top-up is itself counted as income. The very payment meant to protect people is what pushes their council tax higher. This doesn't only affect disabled adults. Families with disabled children, and unpaid carers, can be caught the same way, depending on how each council writes its rules.
Residents have been contacting their local councillors about this, and Citizens Advice Newcastle have kindly provided me with some case studies. St Vincent de Paul have also been sounding the alarm. They have seen people who moved from ESA onto Universal Credit this year and, with no change in their income, saw their council tax support cut from the full amount to half. One had been taken to court over a bill they assumed was a mistake, with court costs added to what they owed. I think advisers will only have seen a small proportion of the affected residents, as those they have heard from said they ignored the first bill because they believed it must have been a mistake.
Courts have started to find against discriminatory schemes
The Bleakleys took their council to the High Court and won. In February 2026 the court declared that counting transitional protection as income when calculating council tax support is unlawful disability discrimination. The council conceded, must now disregard those payments for everyone, and has to refund the couple and pay damages.
The Bleakleys aren't the only ones. Trafford Council's scheme for council tax support has already been quashed by the High Court as discriminatory against disabled people and carers, and a further case against Somerset Council is under way. The Government itself has now written to every billing authority warning that the way schemes treat benefit income can cost people their support, in its own words, even where their household income has remained the same.
What this means for Newcastle
Newcastle's scheme is not the worst offender. It's built differently from the ones the courts have struck down, and it passports many people on the lowest incomes to the highest level of support. But after Bleakley, every council needs to be certain it's on the right side of the law. The Council should state plainly and publicly how its scheme treats the transitional protection element, and the disability-related elements of Universal Credit, for residents moved off ESA. If any of those are being counted as income, people are at risk and the scheme must change.
In January, the City Council passed a motion I proposed, seconded by Cllr Sarah Peters. It was adopted with cross-party support and a constructive amendment from the then opposition group. The motion reaffirmed Newcastle's commitment to the Citizens Advice Council Tax Protocol it signed in 2017. It committed to exempting people receiving council tax support from referral to bailiffs. The amended motion recognised that people not receiving council tax support can be in financial difficulty too and argued that use of bailiffs should be limited to a last resort. In my view one of the most important aspects of the motion was setting up a route so that debt advisors can intervene quickly to protect people and ask for enforcement to be paused. It also asked the Council to set up regular meetings with Citizens Advice Newcastle, Money Matters, and other local debt advice agencies. We should now get on with this.
I have written to the Council's Monitoring Officer and asked him whether the Council has properly considered the impact on disabled people affected by the switch to Universal Credit.
[You can read the content of my email to the Monitoring Officer here https://www.alistairchisholm.com/emailcontent ]
What I am asking Newcastle City Council to do
Immediately, for people already hit:
1. Use the discretionary power the Council already holds. Section 13A(1)(c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 lets the Council reduce, or entirely cancel, a council tax bill [more information here https://www.alistairchisholm.com/section-13a-pamphlet]. That power can be applied not just case by case but to a whole class of people, for example everyone migrated from legacy disability benefits to Universal Credit who has seen their support cut as a result. The Council doesn't need new legislation or permission from Whitehall to do this. It can decide to do it.
2. Put a hold on enforcement for affected residents. No one in this group should be facing reminders, court summonses or bailiffs for a bill that exists only because of this rule change. Recovery on these accounts should be paused while they are reviewed, and affected people should be supported to get independent debt advice.
3. Make good the damage already done. Where court costs or bailiff fees have already been piled onto these debts, they should be cancelled or refunded. People shouldn't be left paying enforcement charges for a shortfall that was never their fault, and active support should be offered to anyone who has been pushed into crisis.
4. Find people, don't wait for them to ask for help. The Council knows, or can identify, who has recently moved from ESA to Universal Credit. It should review those council tax accounts proactively rather than leaving it to residents. Many of them are likely to be unwell, anxious about official letters, and unaware of why their bill jumped.
Fix the system so the problem doesn't recur:
5. Publish the equality assessment behind these changes. Equality law required the Council to assess how these arrangements would affect disabled residents before adopting them. It should confirm whether it did so and publish that assessment; if it didn't, it should carry one out now and act on what it finds.
6. Fix the scheme itself at the next review. The Council's Council Tax Reduction scheme should expressly disregard the Universal Credit transitional protection element, which after the Bleakley ruling is no longer optional, and the disability-related elements of Universal Credit, restoring the treatment these incomes had under the legacy system. The Council has already planned to amend the scheme through the statutory consultation process; this change should be built into the 2027/28 scheme. Discretionary relief is the right tool for an emergency, but it should not become a permanent patch over a scheme that produces unfair results by design; the courts have specifically warned against leaning on hardship funds to cover gaps the scheme itself creates.
7. Apply the fair-collection commitments already made. January's motion committed the Council to exempting council tax support recipients from referral to bailiffs, to a debt-adviser route for pausing enforcement, and to reviewing its practices against the Citizens Advice Council Tax Protocol it signed in 2017. Those commitments should be implemented without delay and applied to everyone caught by the DWP’s migration to Universal Credit. People affected should be referred or signposted to free debt advice.
8. Use the voice the Council already resolved to use. In January's motion the Council agreed to write to the Secretary of State on fairer collection. That letter should also press the Government to do the obvious thing these court cases have exposed: issue clear guidance telling every council to disregard Universal Credit transitional protection when calculating council tax support, so that disabled people aren't left to win this council by council, in court, one at a time.
The Council has the tools. The question is whether it uses them
You can tell a lot about what a Council really cares about from the bills it sends to the people with the least. The powers to fix this already exist, and the Council has said it wants to collect fairly.
If you are a Newcastle resident whose council tax has risen since you moved to Universal Credit, feel free to get in touch with me.
Advice services include: the City Council’s Welfare Rights Service and Money Matters Debt Advice Service, Citizens Advice Newcastle and St Vincent de Paul.
Sources and further reading
R (Bleakley) v Three Rivers District Council (High Court, 2 February 2026) — case summaries from Garden Court North Chambers and Bindmans solicitors; case note on Rightsnet.
R (Mitchell) v Somerset Council — judicial review granted permission January 2026; Leigh Day (leighday.co.uk).
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Council Tax Information Letter 2/2026 (gov.uk) — the Government's acknowledgement that migration can cost people council tax support even where income is unchanged.
Disability News Service, coverage of the Bleakley ruling (disabilitynewsservice.com).
Benefits and Work, practical guidance on challenging post-migration council tax rises.
Citizens Advice and Local Government Association, Council Tax Protocol; MHCLG best practice guidance on council tax collection (gov.uk).
Alistair Chisholm