North Kesteven District Council’s Council Tax Support scheme for 2025-26 onwards is being reviewed, with a consultation currently open for public comments and feedback.
This scheme offers vital support to a wide variety of local people who may struggle with meeting all of the demands on their household budgets, with the Council wanting to make it as easy and efficient as possible to help such people.
Council Tax Support is awarded to approximately 2700 pensioner households and 2700 working age households in North Kesteven. This equates to just under 10% of the total number of households in the district.
The Council is seeking public views on whether to continue offering the scheme in its current format or to move to a ‘banded’ scheme which may provide easier administration for both residents and the Council. The consultation is open to anyone, whether or not they are in receipt of support from the scheme.
Please note that only working age households will be affected by these proposed changes, pensioners will be unaffected.
Councillor Mrs Mary Green, Executive Board Member for Finance, Governance & Democracy, said: “Currently, every time someone’s income changes – which can happen quite often for people claiming Universal Credit – a new Council Tax bill is generated, and payments changed, which causes more admin and inconvenience for them. We’re proposing an option to change the system so that income is put into bands, meaning that these changes are only made when crossing between bands.
“This will cut down on paperwork and help us to provide an efficient and cost-effective service. For residents, there would be less confusion and less chance of there being an unexpected bill to pay. However, it could mean that there might be changes to the amount of support received by certain households – plus or minus. That’s why we want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to have their say.”
Further information and a link to complete the survey can be found at https://www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/benefits-support/council-tax-support-scheme. The consultation period will end on 18 November 2024.
A decision about the proposed scheme will be made by the local authority’s Councillors when they meet in January 2025. As soon as possible after this date, full details of the scheme will be published on the NKDC website.