Council Tax Reduction 2022-23 (Earnings Bracket scheme)

Closed 18 Oct 2021

Opened 7 Sep 2021

Contact

Housing.benefits@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Overview

Each year, the council is required to review its Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme.

Council Tax Reduction (CTR) is a system for low income households to help pay towards Council Tax. You may get Council Tax Reduction if you pay Council Tax and your income and capital (savings and investments) are below a certain level.

People of pensionable age are assessed under national rules which the council cannot change. They will continue to have their Council Tax Reduction worked out in the same way as it is now. The council decides on the rules for working age people. There are currently around 12,300 working age households in the city who claim CTR.

It is estimated that in the current 2021-22 year, the working age part of the CTR scheme will cost £12.128m based on current numbers of claims.

An increasing number of Local Authorities are introducing a new type of CTR based on income brackets. Some of the reasons for doing this are:

  • To make the scheme clearer, and easier to understand
  • To work better alongside Universal Credit (UC), because currently CTR does not align well with UC
  • To make it clearer how much Council Tax you still need to pay if you are claiming CTR
  • To reduce the number of changes to Council Tax bills a resident currently experiences  as a result of their UC amount changing each month

We are proposing to introduce a version of CTR based on what earning bracket you fall into. The new version will be only for those who are getting Universal Credit. If you are not claiming UC, your claim would still need to be assessed using the current rules.

Options will be finalised at December 2021’s full council meeting, where a decision will be made by councillors, taking into account views from the consultation, alongside the overall budget position.

If we make changes, they would be implemented on 1 April 2022.

This consultation

We will explain the new scheme over the next few pages and then ask you some questions about it as we are keen to hear from residents.