Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance and the Executive Member for Finance and Governance submitted a report, which sought approval for the amendment of the Council’s Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme for 2023/2024.

The Executive Member for Finance and Governance presented the report.

Each Billing Authority in England had a statutory requirement to make a Council Tax Support scheme by no later than 11 March each year, which was required to be approved by full council.

With the exception of minor legislative amendments made this year by central government/DLUHC, the scheme itself remained unchanged from 2022/23, however the proposed recommendation was to uplift the income bandings for 2023/24 to reflect the recent inflation rise for working age benefits. This recommendation was proposed in order to maintain the current level of support for applicants, recognising the financial challenges placed on residents due to the Cost of Living and Energy crises.

The implications of the recommendations had been considered by the appropriate officers of the Council and were set out in the main body of the report.

The Chair invited the Monitoring Officer to conduct a recorded vote on the recommendation contained in the report.

The outcome of the recorded vote was as follows:

Votes For: (38)

Mr A Preston (Elected Mayor) Councillors Bell, Blades, Branson, Cooke, Cooper, Coupe, Davison, Dean, Furness, Grainge, Hellaoui, Hill, C Hobson, J Hobson, Hubbard, Hussain, Jones, Mason, Mawston, McCabe, McIntyre, McTigue, Nugent, Polano, Rathmell, Rooney, Rostron, Sands, Saunders, Smiles, M Storey, P Storey, Thompson, J A Walker, S Walker, Wilson, Wright

Votes Against: (0)                  

Abstentions: (0)

Following the recorded vote, it was ORDERED as follows:

That the revised Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme for 2023/24, be approved.

The Executive Member for Environment and Finance & Governance and the Director of Finance submitted a report for the Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to seek endorsement for the amendment of the Council’s Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme for 2022/2023.

Notwithstanding the introduction of Universal Credit (UC), the existing scheme was based on a ‘pre-dated’ means-tested benefit scheme:

·         It was difficult for customers to understand and was based on a complex calculation of entitlement;

·         The administration for staff was very convoluted, with staff having to request significant amounts of information from claimants;

·         Staff had to undergo extensive training to be proficient in processing claims;

·         The timescales for processing applications was lengthy, mainly due to the complexity and evidence required to support the applications; and

·         The administration of the scheme was costly when compared to other discounts for Council Tax.

There was a need to simplify the scheme, not only to mitigate the effects of UC, which had been fast tracked as a consequence of Covid-19, but to make it easier for customers to make a claim, reduce the likelihood of fraud and to reduce the costs of administration.

The proposed approach for the 2022/23 Council Tax Support Scheme was detailed at paragraphs 16 to 19 of the submitted report. Details of how the proposed scheme planned to address the problems of the current scheme were outlined at paragraph 20.

Information on the consultation process and the feedback received was included at paragraphs 24 to 26 of the submitted report. A summary of the results from the 45 completed questionnaires was included at Appendix D.

OPTIONS

The alternative to introducing a proposed alternative scheme for CTS from 2022/23 was to leave the existing scheme in place. That would have been a short-term option; leading to increasing costs of administration; and in the longer term, would have significantly affected the collection of Council Tax and the effectiveness of the scheme to support households within the Council’s area.

Modelling (see below) had also been done on an alternative ‘income grid’ scheme with 85% maximum support and 100% maximum support.

·         100% support scheme was not recommended as that would have been a cost to the Council in excess of £1,000,000 and on that basis would have been unaffordable.

·         85% support scheme was equally not recommended. Whilst the overall cost of the scheme would have been cheaper, it would have had a detrimental impact on the cost of collection, and in addition placed a further financial burden on some of the lower income residents of the town.

·         Retain the existing means tested scheme with 85% support was not recommended. Although the current scheme would have been cost neutral, it was complicated and difficult for claimants to navigate their way through, and that was resulting in a reduction in take up. It was also impacting on the timeliness of billing and collecting Council Tax amounts, and was also more resource intensive to administer (see paragraph 11 of the submitted report).

The principles of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103