The Interim Head of Finance and S151 Officer presented a report, the purpose of which was to provide Council with information regarding the implementation of the 20118-19 Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTR) (to be adopted by 31 January 2018), together with the funding implications.

She confirmed that on 11 January 2017, the Council adopted the CTR for 2017-18 in accordance with the Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2013, which will end on 31 March 2018.  There were currently 13,892 households receiving CTR, 8,517 of these were of working age and 5,375 were of pensionable age.  Of the 13,892 households receiving CTR, 10,615 were entitled to a full CTR reduction. 

The Interim Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer reported that the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 had now been laid and made amendments to:

·         Mirror changes made to the benefit system with respect to Employment Support Allowance.

·         Make changes to reflect new service provision arrangements following the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016.

·         Make changes to address an anomaly within the wording of the amending provisions included within the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 with respect to changes of circumstances provisions.

·         Make a number of changes with respect to payments which are disregarded for the purposes of calculating ‘income’ and/or ‘capital’. These include the new bereavement support payments among others.

The Interim Head of Finance and S151 Officer stated that the new regulations did not contain any significant changes from the claimants’ perspective to the current scheme, and the maximum level of support that eligible claimants could receive remained at 100%.  She explained the limited discretion given to the Council, to apply discretionary elements that were more generous than the national scheme.  It was proposed that the discretionary elements be as follows:-

·         The extended payment period is maintained at the minimum standard of 4 weeks.

·         War Disablement Pensions and War Widows Pensions are fully disregarded when calculating entitlement to CTR. The estimated cost of this proposal is £15,300.

·         Backdating was maintained at the minimum standard of 3 months.

The Interim Head of Finance and S151 Officer explained that the total estimated cost to the Council for these proposals is £15,300 for 2018-19.

The Interim Head of Finance and S151 Officer informed Council that it must consider whether to replace or revise its CTR scheme and is obliged to make a scheme under the requirements of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations.  The obligation is a statutory duty and applies even if the Council chose not to apply any of the discretions available to it.  She stated that the Council's recommended approach to the available discretions is to apply the recommendations in Table 4, paragraph 4.23 of the report.  There are no additional monies available from the Welsh Government to fund the discretionary elements and the scheme must be administered by local authorities within a fixed budget.

RESOLVED:                          That Council:

(a)   Noted the Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2013, and the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 amendment regulations.

                                              (b)   Adopted the scheme, details of which were given in paragraphs 4.18 to 4.24 of the report.