Martin Lewis says council tax bill payers can call and get £174 back

Money expert Martin Lewis is urging people to contact their local council and get £174 each back on average because they may be owed overpaid Council Tax.

The founder has revealed that as much as £141m of overpaid money is currently owed to more than 800,000 homes, which works out as £174 per bill payer on average.

Many who have moved house between different council areas and didn't have a Direct Debit set up may have fallen foul of accidentally overpaying their and in these cases the local council had no way of contacting the person owed to repay them the cash.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on and ITVX, Martin urged those to whom this applies to call up and get their money back.

Martin said: "This is about £141m of overpaid Council Tax credit belonging to 800,000 homes.

"To reclaim, you just go onto the council's form or you call them up.

"But please don't clog them up unnecessarily. This is quite specific."

He said that the money is owed to people in a few key circumstances.

Martin continued: "These are primarily for people who moved into a different council area since 1993 and were NOT paying by Direct Debit (most people do pay by Direct Debit).

"Because then they couldn't contact you if they owed you money.

"So why may you be owed?

"Well you paid in advance, you're paying on 10 months, you had a couple of months left, you moved out early, or you forgot to cancel your payment, or the person who moved in after you got re-banded and you were actually owed money off the back of that.

"So have a look at that; scout your old house, remember what band you were in, if it's lower now, you may well be owed money.

"But don't just do this speculatively."

Martin then advised viewers that you can also switch your payments from 10 monthly instalments to 12. This won't save you any money, nor will it cost anything, but for 10 months of the year you would have a slightly lower monthly payment and it would help even out your monthly payments each year.

Martin added: "Final note, in England, if you're paying 10 monthly, some people love it because they get a two-month holiday at the end, some people hate it for budgeting.

"You have a legal right to shift the paying to 12 monthly instalments. In Scotland and Wales you can often do it as well."