Council Tax support scheme

Current Council Tax Support Scheme

The current scheme for 2024/25 has the following restrictions for working age customers

• Capital is limited to £8000 – over this amount and you do not receive any Council Tax Support.
• Minimum entitlement is £3.50 per week – unless your income shows you would be entitled to £3.50 a week or more, you will not receive Council Tax Support.
• Property banding is capped at 90% of a Band D – a customer in Band E and above will only have their Council Tax Support calculated as 90% of the Band D liability at the most.
• Backdating is restricted to 1 month since 1 April 2018.
• Self-employed income is assessed using 16 hours at minimum wage for the first year of business.
• All child maintenance is disregarding.
• Temporary absence away from home is in line with the Housing Benefit regulations.
• Care leavers are fully exempt from council tax up to the age of 25 years.
• Premium charges apply to properties that have been empty for more than 1 year, 5 years and 10 years.
• An exceptional hardship fund of £25,000.

The scheme above has some minor differences for vulnerable working age customers.

Even a very small change in Universal Credit means that under the current scheme, there would be a change in Council Tax Support. The change in Council Tax Support results in new council tax bill being issued, potentially with a new payment plan which can cause changes to the direct debits etc. Our residents can find that they are getting multiple changes to their payment plan throughout the year which results in confusion and at times large bills that need to be paid towards the end of the year.

Our banded scheme which is explained below will reduce the number of times the Council Tax Support changes as most of the small changes will stay within specific income band widths. New bills would only be issued if the income changes meant that the income moved into a different band.

Previous Year's Schemes