Issue - meetings

(a)       That the laying of The Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 be noted; and

(b)       That the Scheme as set out in 3.02 of the report be adopted and the recommendations to maintain the discretionary payments be approved.

The Chief Executive introduced the report which explained the requirement to adopt the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2015/16 by 31 January 2015. 

Within the Regulations made under Schedule 1B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, there was limited discretion given to the Council to apply additional elements that were more generous than the national scheme, details of which were outlined in the report.  The Council’s recommended approach to the available discretions were to continue to apply them as follows:

1.    Not to increase the “extended payment period” to more than four weeks when an applicant started work.  This rule acted as a good incentive measure under CTRS and it made sense to maintain it in line with the Housing Benefits (HB) Extended Payment Rules, which were also set at four weeks. The projected cost of this measure for 2014/15 was £20,098 and the approximate cost for 2015/16 would be £20,700.

2.    To continue to disregard all War Disablement and War Widows Pensions as income.  The projected cost of this measure for 2014/15 was £42,870 and the approximate cost for 2015/16 would be £44,156.

3.    To maintain the standard three month backdating provisions for working age customers when a good reason for failing to claim earlier was shown.  This reflected the current position with regard to CTRS and HB.  The projected cost of this measure for 2014/15 was £62,502 and the approximate cost for 2015/16 would be £64,377.

Councillor Aaron Shotton moved approval of the recommendations, which was duly seconded, citing his support for the three discretions as outlined in the report.

            RESOLVED:

(a)       That the laying of The Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 be noted; and

(b)       That the Scheme as set out in 3.02 of the report be adopted and the recommendations to maintain the discretionary payments be approved.