Agenda item

Agenda item

Proposed Changes to the Council Tax Support Scheme

The report of the City Treasurer is enclosed.

Minutes:

In October 2016 we had considered and endorsed for public consultation a revised Council Tax Support (Minute Exe/16/126). In January 2017 we considered the outcome of the consultation and agreed to adopt a new support scheme (Minute Exe/17/012). The City Treasurer now submitted a report proposing further changes to the Council’s Council Tax Support (CTS) Scheme, with the intention that these would also be subject to a period of public consultation. The basis of these proposed changes was to seek to ensure that that the scheme remained fit for purpose as working age residents in receipt of welfare benefits were moved onto Universal Credit (UC).

 

The report explained the challenges to the current scheme of Council Tax Support that were going to arise from the changeover to Universal Credit. One of the most significant of those being that it was not ‘universal’ and so Council Tax Support would need to be administered outside of and separately from UC. Under the current CTS scheme the entitlement to CTS was influenced by the entitlement to other benefits. As UC was set up so that the level of benefit could fluctuate, depending on a person’s earnings, there was the possibility of a lot of administrative processing to deal with fluctuating levels of CTS benefits, making the scheme less straightforward for residents and more expensive for the Council to operate.

 

The report set out a package of proposed changes to the current scheme to mitigate the consequences of claimants moving onto Universal Credit, including the introduction of a banding structure for level of support based on ranges of excess weekly income. It was hoped that these bands would accommodate much of the fluctuation in UC levels without there needing to be a matching fluctuation in the Council Tax Support.

 

 

We noted that the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee had also considered the Treasurer’s report at a recent meeting (Minute RGSC/18/46). The Committee had supported the proposed changes to the CTS Scheme. It had also recommended that other possible changes to some aspects of the current scheme be considered for inclusion in the consultation on the changes set out in the report. These additional changes related to the support to families with three of more children.

 

It was agreed that the changes proposed in the report should be consulted upon. It was also agreed that the further changes recommended by the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee should be considered by the City Treasurer, and if possible without causing undue delay, included in the consultation. Authority was therefore delegated to the City Treasurer to decide on the contents and timing of the consultation.

 

Decisions

 

1.         To endorse the proposals contained in the report and that there should be formal consultation on those proposals.

 

2.         To note the comments and recommendations of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee.

 

3.         To delegate authority to the City Treasurer in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources to finalise the consultation proposals and the timing of the consultation, either on the basis as set out in the report, or also adding further proposals as put forward by the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee if those could be incorporated without the consultation being unreasonably delayed.

 

4.         To note that the outcome of the consultation will be reported back to a future meeting.

 

Supporting documents: