Members are asked to declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests in respect of any item of business to be considered at the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by councillors regarding the item on the Agenda.

This report asks the Committee to recommend to Council a Local Council Tax Support Scheme for the 2016/17 financial year.

The Committee received and considered a report setting out three options in relation to a Local Council Tax Support Scheme for the 2016/17 financial year.  The Council was required to approve the 2016/17 Local Council Tax Support Scheme by 31 January 2016 and implement it from 1 April 2016.  Where significant changes were to be made the Council was required to undertake a consultation with the public and precepting authorities.

At its June 2015 meeting this Committee had received a report on the financial impacts of continuing the current scheme for 2015/16 and agreed to consult on potentially increasing the percentage minimum contribution made by work age recipients of Council Tax Support (currently 20%).

The three options consulted upon were:

Option A:  to continue with the current scheme for a further year with the underlying means tested applicable amounts being uplifted by the same percentage as the Housing Benefit rates applicable form April 2016.

Option B:  to increase the percentage minimum payment on the current scheme to 25% for the 2016/17 financial year with the underlying means tested applicable amounts being uplifted by the same percentage as the Housing Benefit rates applicable form April 2016.

Option C:  to increase the percentage minimum payment on the current scheme to 30% for the 2016/17 financial year with the underlying means tested applicable amounts being uplifted by the same percentage as the Housing Benefit rates applicable form April 2016.

The report indicated that the majority of respondents to the consultation (69%) were in favour of an increase in the minimum payment, with an increase to 25% being the most popular.  Table 3 in the report (which had been amended following deferral of this report in November) demonstrated that increasing the minimum percentage would only reduce the expected 2016/17 shortfall if the Council could achieve a higher than expected rate of collection.  The recovery team could take a more forceful approach on recovery with Support recipients but with other 2016/17 welfare changes affecting so many of these recipients it was difficult to assess the effectiveness of a more stringent recovery process on collection rates.

Officers had concerns that adopting Option C in particular could have the effect of reducing the amount collected from Council Tax Support claimants.  The Community Equality Impact Assessment highlighted that certain groups could be more severely affected by the scheme although due to their status all Support recipients would be negatively affected by a minimum payment scheme and any increase in the minimum payment.  Building in protections for certain vulnerable groups was an option but this would worsen the effect of the minimum payment scheme for others, if savings were to be made, and further effect recovery.  A more targeted approach to protections using the existing Discretionary Hardship Fund appeared to be a more efficient way to help those most in need.  For the 2015/16 scheme an additional £10k had been set aside to provide for any increase in take up from the Hardship Fund. This could be reviewed at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.