Agenda item

Cabinet is invited to consider the attached report, which seeks authorisation to undertake statutory consultation with both the public and the Major Precepting Authorities (the GLA) in respect of proposed changes to Croydon’s Council Tax Reduction (Support) Scheme (CTS), which will take effect from 1 April 2023.

RESOLVED: To

1.1  Approve statutory consultation on changes to the income banded Council Tax Reduction (Support) Scheme for working age claimants from 1st April 2023 specifically consultation with the GLA, publication of a draft revised Scheme, and consultation with other persons likely to have an interest in the operation of the Scheme, as set out in this report.

1.2  Agree that the recommended changes to be consulted on are:

a) Removing the application of the minimum income floor to disabled working households

b) Introducing non-dependent deductions to disabled not working households

c) Changing the level at which the current income bands are increased annually from CPI to the same percentage increase as Council Tax.

Cabinet considered a report, which soughtauthorisation to undertake statutory consultation with both the public and the Major Precepting Authorities (the GLA) in respect of proposed changes to Croydon’s Council Tax Reduction (Support) Scheme (CTS), which would take effect from 1st April 2023.

It was reported that each financial year, the Council was required to review its CTS scheme in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 1A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and to either maintain the scheme or amend it.  Further, an income banded CTS scheme was introduced from 1 April 2022 to simplify the scheme and to achieve MTFS cost reductions of £4.3m for Croydon.

It was further reported that, as of July 2022, Croydon had awarded £28.4m for the financial year of Council Tax Support to residents. This was a decrease in CTS awarded of £6.7m compared to last year, with the financial impact to Croydon being a saving of £5.4m.  Compared to the MTFS estimate of £4.3m, it was on track to cost £1.1m less than originally planned.

The report set out proposals to review the CTS scheme and to make changes, which would impact the level of expenditure by varying amounts.

The Executive Mayor said that this was a tidying-up process following amendments that had been made to the Scheme last year and that the proposed amendments to the Scheme would bring the Council into line with neighbouring Merton, Sutton and Bromley London Boroughs, who took non-dependant reductions within their Council Tax Support Schemes.

The report set out examples of how each of these changes could impact on different claimants and further information would be part of the consultation.  The Executive Mayor asked that Members promote the consultation to their constituents as the Council wanted to hear what residents thought about the proposals and how they could possibly impact them before any final decisions were made.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, detailed the three proposed changes which were going out to consultation and highlighted one of the examples provided in the report and how this might impact upon a claimant.

In response to a question put by Councillor Callton Young (Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance) in respect of the third recommendation in the report, the Executive Mayor said that this was a Council Tax support scheme and what the Cabinet had before it was a scheme to support Council Tax and therefore it tracked Council Tax and that if Council Tax went up, the level of support would also go up accordingly.

Having listened to the contributions and considered the detail in the report, the Executive Mayor, in Cabinet, RESOLVED that:

1.            A statutory consultation on changes to the income banded Council Tax Reduction (Support) Scheme for working age claimants from 1 April 2023, specifically consultation with the GLA, publication of a draft revised Scheme, and consultation with other persons likely to have an interest in the operation of the Scheme, as set out in this report, be approved; and

2.            The following recommended changes to be consulted on, be agreed:

a)        Removing the application of the minimum income floor to disabled working households.

b)        Introducing non-dependent deductions to disabled not working households.

c)      Changing the level at which the current income bands are increased annually from CPI to the same percentage increase as Council Tax.