Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Cabinet for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King

Officer: Interim Corporate Director Resources, Richard Ennis

Key decision: no

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.            Recommend changes to Croydon’s Council Tax Support Scheme following review and due regard to the statutory consultation feedback. The new scheme will take effect from 1 April 2022.

2.            Note the proposed income banded scheme that was consulted upon and the further changes that have been made to the scheme in-line with the resident and community feedback received.

3.            Recommend to full Council, that the Councils Council Tax Support Scheme is amended to an income band scheme subject to the changes made following the consultation, from 1 April 2022. A full copy of the Council’s Council Tax Support Scheme in the form to be recommended, is circulated separately as Appendix 1 of the report.

4.            It is recommended that Cabinet annually review the CTS Scheme, the principles of the income banded scheme and the addition of a hardship fund in August 2022 and then annually.

5.            Cabinet is asked to accept and recommend to full council that a hardship fund is agreed to support resident’s transition to the new CTS Scheme. 

Cllr Stuart King outlined details of the Council Tax Support Scheme, costs of which was expected to rise to £40m in the next few years. Members heard about cuts which cumulatively amounted to around £12.5m since the scheme was introduced in Croydon. He reminded colleagues of previous discussions around an income band scheme and the subsequent consultation which had taken place.

Members noted the substance of the report and were informed that there were 600 responses to the consultation. Amendments were subsequently made to the scheme as a result of this and they responded positively to the points raised. Key amendments made to the new scheme, provided extra support, included:

·         Housing element of Universal Credit would be disregarded as income;

·         Lone parents would receive more support to include 100% disregard of childcare costs;

·         50% disregard of Carer’s allowance;

·         2 years hardship fund to be applied in the order of £640k of support.

He ended by saying that enforcement had not been used by the council and had no intention of using these against arrears. Instead they were working with recipients to help them out of these situations. The scheme would be reviewed on an annual basis, beginning in August and would inform any changes that need to be made.

Cllr King invited any comments.

In the subsequent discussion, members made the following points:

·         They acknowledged the council’s commitment to protect the most vulnerable, despite increased demand and decreased availability of funding;

·         They asked for more detail on processes around the Hardship Fund;

·         They requested more information on the processes around reviews and how these would be undertaken;

·         They raised concern around impacts on single parents of children over 5 years old and whether there would be a working group that parents could be involved in around discretionary funds;

·         They pointed out trends in structural inequalities, driven by policy decisions. Given the cost of living rises, was Cabinet confident about the size of the support fund and if pressed, was there any flexibility to help those most in need? Members were concerned that the amount would not be sufficient for demand.

·         They referred to previous issues around the Council’s own dire financial position in the past and felt that this itself had been a factor in all these issues;

·         They acknowledged that unfair funding was also a factor within the council’s need to work on this and had contributed to its ability to respond to these issues before now.

Mr King addressed the points raised and reiterated the importance of the role of councillors to play their part in the process. He assured members that they would be appropriately equipped with all the information needed and that advice would be continually drawn upon to inform the guidance.

Catherine Black was invited to respond and confirmed that any child disability schemes that were currently disregarded would continue to be so.

Members agreed the recommendations of the report.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.     Recommend changes to Croydon’s Council Tax Support Scheme following review and due regard to the statutory consultation feedback. The new scheme would take effect from 1 April 2022.

2.     Note the proposed income banded scheme that was consulted upon and the further changes that have been made to the scheme in-line with the resident and community feedback received.

3.     Recommend to full Council, that the Councils Council Tax Support Scheme was amended to an income band scheme subject to the changes made following the consultation, from 1 April 2022. A full copy of the Council’s Council Tax Support Scheme in the form to be recommended, was circulated separately as Appendix 1 of the report.

4.     It was recommended that Cabinet annually review the CTS Scheme, the principles of the income banded scheme and the addition of a hardship fund in August 2022 and then annually.

5.     Cabinet was asked to accept and recommend to full council that a hardship fund was agreed to support resident’s transition to the new CTS Scheme.