2020/21 Local Council Tax Support Scheme

Overview

We’re proposing a change to our Local Council Tax Support scheme so it works better for working-age people on Universal Credit. We’d like your views before we decide. If you don’t receive Universal Credit or you’re a pensioner you won’t be affected by these changes. 

Local Council Tax Support is a benefit that helps about one quarter of our residents to pay some of their council tax.

The proposed change will simplify what happens to Local Council Tax Support when Universal Credit payments change by small amounts. We’re currently seeing around four changes a year on average, but in some cases it can be every month.

So we propose that most small changes in Universal Credit may no longer need a change in Local Council Tax Support. Instead we would not change Local Council Tax Support until income fell or rose into different bands of income, which we’d set as part of this change. This is called a banded Local Council Tax Support scheme.

We’ll base the income bands on how much you have coming in over a basic amount called the ‘applicable amount’. This is the amount the Government says your family needs to live on each week.