Council Tax Relief

What Council Tax Relief is

Council Tax Relief, or CTR, gives you some money back on your council tax bill while you’re away on operations. The daily rate is based on the average council tax per dwelling in England and is updated every year. It’s tax-free.

Who can claim

• Regular personnel, mobilised reservists and FTRS (Full or Limited Commitment)…
• …serving on a specified operation or assignment…
• …who pay, or are counted for, council tax — or rates in Northern Ireland, or Contributions in Lieu of Council Tax for SFA.

Sailors can qualify too: either permanently assigned or detached for 90 days or more to ships or submarines operating outside UK waters with the Deployed Welfare Package, or assigned to a forward-deployed unit outside UK waters.

You can make one claim per deployment.

Who can’t claim

• Anyone who has negotiated a council tax discount from their local authority specifically because they’re deployed — you can’t have both.
• Personnel accompanied in SFA, or equivalent, at the qualifying location — unless you can show you’re also paying council tax on a private property in the UK.
• Attachés, advisers, embassy and high commission staff, Loan Service personnel, Sponsored Reserves, and EFI or NAAFI staff aboard ships.

How much you get

CTR is £5.12 a day from 1 May 2026, up from £4.85.

It’s paid for every day you’re on the qualifying operation, including days out of theatre on R&R. Short-term tasks elsewhere in the same theatre, from which you’ll return to the operation, don’t interrupt it either.

Worked examples

Evidence checklist

If you live in private accommodation, have these ready for unit HR:

• A council tax bill (or a rates bill in Northern Ireland) covering the deployment, showing you’re counted for council tax at that property.
• Proof from your local authority that you haven’t been given a council tax discount because you’re deployed.

If you live in Service Family Accommodation, the equivalent of council tax is the Contribution in Lieu of Council Tax taken from your pay — that counts too.

How the rate is set

The daily rate is based on the average council tax per dwelling in England and is reviewed every year by the MOD. That’s why it changes on 1 May rather than 1 April. It went from £4.85 to £5.12 a day in May 2026. It’s a flat rate — it doesn’t matter what your own council tax band is.

How to claim

1. Unit HR record your entitlement under DBS instructions.
2. If you live in private accommodation, provide a council tax bill (or Northern Ireland rates bill) for the period showing you’re counted for council tax at that property.
3. Also provide a letter or other proof from your local authority that you haven’t been given a discount because of your deployment.
4. CTR is paid at the daily rate as a lump sum through your salary once your deployment ends.

If something happens on deployment

CTR continues for the planned length of the deployment if you’re hospitalised in theatre or elsewhere, or if you die. If you’re declared missing, it continues until the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre says otherwise. Otherwise it stops the day after you leave the qualifying operation, or from the first day of any period without pay or of absence without leave.