Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2019

Overview

On 1 April 2013 Council Tax Benefit was replaced by a localised Council Tax Reduction scheme in all councils . This meant that councils in England could design their own Council Tax Reduction scheme as it was felt they would be better suited to develop a scheme to reflect the needs of the community. These changes apply to working-age claimants only, as pensioners can be no worse off than they would have been under the Council Tax benefit scheme

Sutton’s Council Tax Reduction scheme provides low income working-age households with help towards their council tax bill; the scheme is based on the household income. Some households can receive as much as a 100% reduction where they have no earned income and are in receipt of disability related benefits. 

In 2018, a  Council Tax Reduction scheme consultation ran from 21 September 2018 to 18 November 2018 and this asked, and the following was agreed, at the Housing, Economy and Business Committee on Tuesday, 29th January 2019:

1.    That the Council Tax Reduction scheme is revised and the income bands are uplifted by 3% with effect from 1 April 2019.

2.   That the Council undertakes a further consultation exercise on the proposed inflation indexation principle to be adopted for the financial year commencing 1 April 2020 as set out in paragraph 6.7 of the report.

3.    That the Council adopts an upper limit of 5% inflation increase that may be applied in any future years even if the CPI is higher than that figure.

Annual Inflation Increases from 2020 onwards

The 2018 consultation did not specify whether the inflation uplift should be based upon Retail Price Index (RPI) or Consumer Price Index (CPI).

What is the difference?

Both CPI and RPI measure inflation. Each one aims to measure the changes in the cost of purchasing a “basket” of items. However, they cover different items and there are differences in the way it is calculated. The Government sets its state pension and benefit increases from each April using the CPI from the previous September and this consultation is suggesting that we do the same.

Why your views matter

Council Tax Reduction is a Council assessed benefit in place to help those on low incomes by reducing their Council Tax liability . The Council wants to know your views on whether the income bands that apply in the assessment of Council Tax Reduction should be increased by the rate of inflation every financial year. The Consultation will ask you if you agree with using the Consumer Price Index as the annual inflationary increase.