The Government abolished the national Council Tax Benefit scheme and asked each Council across the country to replace it with their own local Council Tax Support Scheme from 1 April 2013.
Council Tax Support helps people with low income to pay their Council Tax.
Even though Central Government no longer fully fund the new scheme, Daventry District Council worked hard to look at various options for meeting the Government’s funding cut in a way that protected the most vulnerable residents, including older and disabled people, families with children and people on low incomes. Options such as increasing Council Tax for all payers, cutting other service provision and realigning resources were considered.
Any increase in scheme expenditure during the year, such as an increase in the number of people claiming support, has to be met by the Council, in addition to the reduction in funding.
The funding for 2017/18 has now been reduced further which has meant that Daventry District Council has had to review its scheme again. After public consultation and having carefully considered all the options available, Daventry District Council has decided to meet part of this shortfall from the scheme in order to avoid having to increase Council Tax levels or reduce other service provision. Prudent budget forecasting will meet the remainder.
To partially meet the funding gap, Daventry District Council’s Council Tax Support Scheme from 2017/18 has had several changes compared to previous scheme.
The Council Tax Support Scheme for 2017/18 will still be based upon the existing Council Tax Benefit rules. Therefore the scheme will still be means tested and will still use the same eligibility criteria to determine entitlement.
The scheme will to continue to retain the current scheme protections and incentives by:
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maintaining existing protection for all vulnerable groups by using the existing Council Tax Benefit scheme rules for the calculation of entitlement. The existing scheme protections include: income disregards for Child Benefit, Child Maintenance, Child Care Costs, Disability Living Allowance, War widows/War Disablement Pensions and higher personal allowances for Dependants Allowances, Disability Premium, Enhanced Disability Premium, Severe Disability Premium.
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maintaining existing disregards for earned income to encourage paid work by using the existing Council Tax Benefit scheme rules for the calculation of entitlement. The existing scheme includes Earned Income Disregards.
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maintaining existing scheme calculations for people of Pension Credit age with no cap on the benefit they receive to ensure they are no worse off under the new scheme
However, the change to the previous Council Tax Support Scheme, for working age claimants, from 1 April 2017 are;
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Weekly entitlement to Council Tax Support is calculated for working age claimants it will be based on 80% of the weekly Council Tax bill for their property.
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Will maintain present maximum level of support available for working age at 80%. All working age claimants will be expected to pay a minimum of 20% of Council Tax.
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No Family Premium will be awarded where an application for reduction is received on or after 1st April 2017 or where the applicant would have become entitled to the Family Premium on or after 1st April 2017.
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Reducing the backdating of new claims from 1 April 2017 to one month.
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Withdrawal of Council Tax Reduction where a person leaves Great Britain for four weeks or more.
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Adjust the level of non-dependant deductions in line with Council Tax increases.
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Removal of the Employment and Support Allowance work related activity component.
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Limit the number of dependant children for Council Tax reduction to a maximum of two. There are exceptions to this rule, personal allowance for children will be for only a maximum of two children on new claims made after 6th April 2017. Existing claimants receiving an allowance for more than two children after this date will continue to receive them but will not receive any more for additional children born after 6th April 2017. Exceptions to this two child rule will apply and decisions will be made by HM Revenues and Customs. If they determine that an exception should apply the Council will award additional child allowance in line with Child Tax Credit.
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This will affect all working age claimants and will mean they will need to find a little more towards their Council Tax bill.
THE WHOLE COUNCIL TAX REDUCTION SCHEME DOCUMENT CAN BE VIEWED HERE
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