What is this consultation about?
Each year we must decide on a Council Tax Support scheme for working age people in our area.
We are not proposing any major changes to the Council Tax Support scheme for 2026/2027. We would like to make some minor changes, so our scheme stays the same as other welfare support schemes, and to allow claims to be backdated for longer. We would like to hear your views on these proposals.
What is Council Tax Support?
Council Tax Support is a council tax discount. The level of discount is based on the income of the household and people can receive up to 100% support towards their council tax bill.
Pensioners are paid under the scheme set by Central Government.
Why do we want to continue with the current Council Tax Support scheme?
The Council Tax Support scheme helps people on low incomes, and we want to continue offering this to help households in our area. We recognise that households are still experiencing cost of living pressures and we want people to have certainty about the support they will receive towards their council tax bill. We do not want to reduce the help we are giving people through the Council Tax Support scheme.
We will make positive changes to ensure our scheme stays in line with other welfare support schemes, and to allow claims to be backdated for up to three months where there is good reason for doing so.
Who will this affect?
Working age households in the borough will continue to be eligible for the same level Council Tax Support and will not be negatively affected.
There is a financial cost to the Council Tax Support scheme. This is already included in our budgets and the cost is in line with what we are expecting. The minor updates to the scheme will not have any significant financial impact on our budgets.