Issue - decisions

Cabinet RESOLVED:

(1)        To reject Option 1 (do nothing) and approve Option 2 (as detailed within the report) which would involve public consultation with residents and key stakeholders including the Greater London Authority on the following package of proposals (in addition to technical administrative proposals) in order to reduce the costs to the Council’s working aged local Council Tax Support (CTS) Scheme and to implement the scheme with effect from 1 April 2025:

(a)        Introduce a standard 35% minimum payment for working age households and apply a percentage reduction to each of the income bands. This would mean all CTS claimants being expected to contribute a minimum of 35% towards their Council Tax liability. Their CTS will then be calculated based on their income and this will determine which income band they fall into. If this proposal was adopted, the cost of the scheme would reduce by £7.6m, with detailed explanations and calculations, number of residents impacted and the proposed weekly reduction in CTS shown in Appendix A of the report.

(b)    Simplify the non-dependant charges and have just two flat rate non-dependant deductions for most households with other adults living in the property, £8 per week for non-dependants “out of work” and £20 per week for non-dependants “in work”. This would remove the need to verify income for non-dependants for CTS claims and reduce the administration burden. Adopting this proposal would reduce the cost of the scheme by £0.7m, with a detailed explanation and calculations of the proposed non-dependant deduction, number of households affected and proposed weekly reduction in CTS support shown in Appendix B of the report.

Proposed Changes - Technical Administrative

(2)        To align the backdating rules for new CTS claim in line with the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit regulations i.e. for a maximum of one calendar month. The backdating request to be made at the time of submission of new claim. This proposal would reduce the overall cost of the scheme because it would not be required to automatically go back to the beginning of the financial year, as per the current scheme.

(3)    To review the section 13A policy for hardship fund for Council tax.

(4)    To enable the consideration (by Cabinet) of increasing/decreasing the income bands for customers and non-dependant charges depending on the Consumer Pricing Index (CPI) from September of the previous year and DWP uprating of welfare support received in January of the new financial year.

(5)    To amend the CTS scheme to include the Universal Credit notification received from DWP for Council tax, as start date of claim for Council tax reduction if there was entitlement to it.

Eligible for call-in: Yes

Deadline for submission of call-in: 6pm on Monday 21 October 2024