Agenda item

The Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, presented a report to Council which sought approval of the proposals for the Localised Council Tax Support for 2017/18.

It was reported that under National Welfare reforms, from the 1st April, 2013 Council Tax Benefit was replaced by Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) and Local Authorities received considerably reduced funding from Government for the scheme.  Previously, the full cost of awarding this reduction was funded by the Government.

Members noted that under the Localism agenda, Billing Authorities had to decide each year for working age claims, who was eligible for a reduction in their Council Tax and what level of support they should receive.   Localised Council Tax Support was a means tested form of help to assist the most vulnerable and those who may not have the means to pay their Council Tax in Doncaster.  Pensioners and other aspects of the local scheme were prescribed by the Government and the Council had no discretion in relation to these matters; with the increase in older people, there continued to be a further increase in the numbers of Pensioners qualifying for locally funded support.

It was brought to Members attention that Doncaster had a history of low Council Tax levels with the majority of properties falling in band A.  In 2016/17, the Authority currently had the 9^th lowest Band D Council Tax of the 91 Metropolitan and Unitary Authorities.  The proposed local scheme would help to support over 27,950 of the most vulnerable and those least able to pay households in Doncaster, requiring those who could afford to pay something, pay more of the Council Tax.  Of these, over 12,620 were of pension age and more than 15,330 were of working age on a low income.

The Council acknowledged the challenges facing both the Council due to cuts in Government funding and those affecting many citizens due to their low income, the cost of living challenge and wider welfare reforms which could be impacting on them.  The Authority had been able this year to avoid making major changes to the scheme, avoiding reducing support further by introducing an across the board deduction which would impact on the most vulnerable and those who may not have the means to pay.  Other Authorities who had introduced such schemes, were making further across the board deductions to try and make their schemes viable and balance their collection fund.

Concerns were expressed that the Authorities scheme could have come under such severe pressure that the Authority could have had to make further significant cuts.  However, due to improvements in the local economy, a reduced number of working age claimants and a more buoyant tax base, it had not proved necessary to cut the scheme further for next year.  The only revisions to the scheme being proposed from the 1st April, 2017 were those the Authority legally had to make under the Prescribed Requirement Regulations that were laid before Parliament on 22nd December, 2016 which came into force on the 15th January, 2017.  The only other changes were to uprate some of the rates and allowances used to work out support for claims from those of working age which had been uprated in line with the Government’s rates that applied to Housing Benefit, and the Authority’s local scheme had stipulated that the Authority would apply this uprating on an annual basis, since it was introduced in 2013.

RESOLVED that

(1)       Council note the protection for Pensioners as a result of the annual uprating of allowances, premiums and non-dependant deductions which are prescribed by the Government and the associated change in expenditure which is funded locally;

(2)       the Authority should uprate relevant allowances and premiums for those of working age in line with the annual uprating set by the Government and used in the current scheme, and in other forms of support including Housing Benefit.  The Government has decided to freeze certain allowances for 4 years from April 2016;

(3)       the Council note that any increase in Council Tax liability for the Council, its major preceptors and local parish preceptors, will increase the cost of Local Council Tax Support.  The assumptions used in the cost of the scheme are an increase of 1.95% for Doncaster’s Council Tax and that of the major preceptors and parish preceptors.  There is also a further 2% Council Tax increase proposed and built into the assumptions for the Social Care flexibility.  The purpose of this flexibility is to increase Council Tax further to help to fund additional expenditure pressures created by the Government’s changes to the National Living Wage which has a significant impact in social care contracts and some of the additional spending pressures created by an increase in older people accessing social care services.  Even a further 2% additional increase in Council Tax does not cover the additional expenditure created from the national living wage;

(4)       the Equality analysis attached at Appendix 1 and Due Regard Statement, be considered as part of the decision making; and

(5)       the revised scheme, which is linked at Appendix 2 and has been amended to take into account The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016, be approved.  These regulations in the main are to ensure consistency with changes to social security legislation.  The amendments also increase certain of the figures which are used in calculating whether a person is entitled to a reduction and the amount of that reduction.  These increases relate to pensioner claims and most of the rates used in the calculation of working age claims have been frozen in line with the rates for Housing Benefit.  The Regulations were issued on the 22nd December, 2016 and came into force on the 14th January, 2017 for application in the Council’s revised local scheme from the 1st April, 2017.