Second Adult Rebate is worked out on someone else's pay packet, not the claimant's own — and the two thresholds that decide which tier applies are both set in a weekly cash amount. Converting those cash thresholds into hours worked at the National Living Wage turns an abstract income test into something closer to a weekly timetable: at today's rate, the gap between the top tier and the middle tier sits at a little under 23 hours a week, and the reduction disappears entirely a little under 30 hours in.
What Second Adult Rebate actually tests
Second Adult Rebate — the regulations call it the "alternative maximum council tax reduction" — is one route into a Council Tax Reduction claim. It doesn't look at the claimant's own income at all. Instead it looks at whether a second adult lives in the home who isn't the claimant's partner, isn't jointly liable for the bill, and has a low income of their own. Homecost has covered the full mechanics against Single Person Discount here — the short version is that the two tests are opposites (one resident vs a second, low-income resident) rather than competing versions of the same scheme.
For the mandatory default scheme — which every council must run for applicants who have reached State Pension age — Schedule 3 to the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012 sets the second adult's gross income bands:
| Second adult's gross weekly income | Reduction |
|---|---|
| On a qualifying benefit (Income Support, income-related ESA, Pension Credit, income-based JSA) | 25% |
| Below £289.00 | 15% |
| £289.00 to £375.00 | 7.5% |
| £375.00 or above | None |
Those two figures — £289.00 and £375.00 — were last uprated with effect from 13 February 2026 for the 2026-27 financial year. They apply to gross income: the second adult's pay before tax and National Insurance, not what lands in their bank account.
The same thresholds in hours, not pounds
A weekly income threshold means something different depending on the hourly rate behind it. At the National Living Wage — the minimum hourly rate for workers aged 21 and over, £12.71 since April 2026 — the two Second Adult Rebate boundaries convert to:
| Second Adult Rebate boundary | Weekly income | Hours at National Living Wage (£12.71) |
|---|---|---|
| Top of the 15% tier | £289.00 | 22.74 |
| Top of the 7.5% tier | £375.00 | 29.50 |
In plain terms: at the National Living Wage, a second adult working up to roughly 22 hours and 45 minutes a week keeps the household on the higher, 15% tier. Somewhere between that point and around 29 hours 30 minutes, the reduction steps down to 7.5%. Above 29 hours 30 minutes, the second adult's gross income clears £375 a week and the rebate stops applying altogether.
Younger workers sit on a lower statutory rate, so the same two cash thresholds convert to more hours. The National Minimum Wage for 18-to-20-year-olds is £10.85 an hour from April 2026:
| Second Adult Rebate boundary | Weekly income | Hours at the 18-20 rate (£10.85) |
|---|---|---|
| Top of the 15% tier | £289.00 | 26.64 |
| Top of the 7.5% tier | £375.00 | 34.56 |
The cash thresholds are fixed by the regulations regardless of the second adult's age; it's only the hours-to-reach-them that move, because the National Minimum Wage itself is age-banded.
What the tiers are worth, area by area
The percentage is applied to the household's actual Band D council tax bill, so the same tier is worth very different amounts depending on where the dwelling sits. Using 2026-27 Band D figures:
| Area | Band D 2026-27 | 15% tier (under 22.74 hrs) | 7.5% tier (22.74-29.50 hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| National mean (296 English councils) | £2,410.97 | £361.65 | £180.82 |
| Wandsworth (among the cheapest) | £1,028.21 | £154.23 | £77.12 |
| Dorset (among the dearest) | £2,765.02 | £414.75 | £207.38 |
A second adult crossing from 22 to 30 hours a week on the National Living Wage halves the household's rebate in every one of these areas — but the cash difference that halving makes ranges from £77 a year in Wandsworth to £207 in Dorset, simply because the underlying bill is so different. Homecost's council tax bands explainer sets out why Band D itself varies this much between councils.
Why this is an illustration, not a payslip calculation
A few things stop this from being a precise prediction for any one household:
- The 2012 Regulations set the mandatory scheme for State Pension age applicants only. Working-age claims are assessed under each council's own local Council Tax Reduction scheme, which the Local Government Finance Act 2012 allows to set different income bands, different percentages, or to drop the Second Adult Rebate route altogether. The hours above apply to the national default scheme, not automatically to every council's working-age scheme.
- The test looks at gross income, aggregated across every second adult in the home. A single second adult's single payslip is the simplest case; a home with two second adults, or one with income from more than one source, is assessed on their combined gross income.
- Real weekly hours rarely land on a round number, and the National Living Wage applies only from age 21 — a second adult on a different hourly rate, with overtime, or with non-wage income, will cross the thresholds at a different number of hours entirely.
None of this is advice about how many hours anyone should work. It's a way of reading an income test that's written in pounds through the lens of a working week, which is how most people actually experience their own pay.
This is general information, not financial or welfare-benefit advice — speak to your council or a qualified adviser about how a specific claim will be assessed.
Try the Homecost True Cost tool on a Wandsworth postcode to see a council tax bill before and after a discount, or browse more council tax guides.