Agenda item

Council Tax Support/Benefits

Meeting of Area Forum (Heswall and Pensby & Thingwall), Wednesday, 17th October 2012 6.30 p.m. (Item 3.)

Question and Answer Session

Minutes:

Neil Powell, Department of Finance, gave a presentation on changes to the Council Tax system.

The Government has announced that from April 2013, Council Tax Benefits will no longer exist in their current form and all councils will need to devise their own Council Tax Support scheme.

In addition, Wirral Council will have to work within a budget that has been reduced by at least 10%, which for 2013/14 equates to an initial budget reduction in the region of £3.2 million. As a result the Council has to make decisions about who should get financial support and how much support they should be given.

The Council Tax Benefit, which is the means tested benefit that helps people on a low income to pay their Council Tax, will be abolished and replaced with a new local scheme, known as Local Council Tax Support Scheme.

The Government has decided that pensioners and vulnerable people must be protected and that vulnerable people should be defined locally.

Wirral Council is consulting on the definition of vulnerable people, [eg those of working age who have a disability, have a disabled child, have a war disabled pension or a war widow/widower pension] and is consulting on a proposal to base the local scheme for 2013/14 on the principles of the existing Council Tax Benefit scheme, and on possible options for achieving the £3.2 million savings needed from the scheme.

Members of the public are urged to complete the questionnaire by the return date of 31 October 2012. Questionnaires can be completed on line on the website in libraries [apart from Rock Ferry Library]. Paper versions can be obtained from and returned to any Council One Stop Shop, Library, Leisure Centre and Children’s Centre. Completed questionnaires can be returned by post.

Once the consultation finishes, a report will be presented to Elected Members who will make the final decisions on Wirral Council’s Local Council Tax Support Scheme.

Neil Powell responded to questions -

Q	How much does it cost to give pensioners a discount on their Council tax?
A	£1.2 million. The Government has said pensioners must not be worse off.
Q	People being asked to respond to questions in a forum such as this. What does it contribute to the financial aspects of the LA?
A	By law, we have to ask those questions.
Q	What is the rate of non-collection of Council tax?
A	We collected 96.8% last year, we usually manage to collect the remainder within 2/3 months. It’s an easy tax to collect.
Q	According to a Press article, some Councils are saying if they make people pay it costs more to collect than they collect, especially in low banded properties.
A	You are quite right. A person in a band A property would pay £20 a month, and it would be too expensive to collect it.
Q	Do you use debt collection agencies?
A	We use bailiffs. We don’t factor the debt because there is not a huge amount of debt left to collect.

The Chair urged people to take the time to fill in the questionnaire.