Council targets discount claimants

More than 85,000 households in the city currently claim the 25 per cent reduction.

Next month, the council will check to find homes where more than one adult is living but a single person's discount is claimed.

When the same review was carried out last year 1,600 discounts were either amended or cancelled – bringing in an extra 270,000 council tax.

The council's cabinet member for finance, Councillor Simon Clement Jones, said: "We believe the vast majority of discounts in Sheffield are being claimed legitimately. But we also understand that people's circumstances change and they may have forgotten to tell us that they are no longer the only adult living in the property, for example when children become 18."