Issue - meetings

To receive a report seeking approval of the discretionary Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme Policy to provide financial support to households not eligible for assistance under the main scheme.

Executive Councillor: S Ferguson.

The Cabinet has approved Huntingdonshire District Council’s Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme policy.

A report by the Revenues and Benefits Manager was submitted (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) seeking approval of a discretionary Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme policy to provide financial support to households not eligible for assistance under the main scheme.

By way of background, the Executive Councillor for Customer Services advised there were three strands of work relating to Energy Bills Rebate, with the discretionary scheme forming the latter part of this work. He went on to explain that households in Council Tax Bands A-D were eligible for a one-off payment of £150 which also included Band E properties where the award of a Disabled Band Reduction had lowered the Band to D. In noting that around 61,000 households were eligible for this payment, it was reported that 45,000 payments had been made to those households who paid their Council Tax via Direct Debit. The remaining 16,000 households had been contacted individually to obtain their payment details and to date, a total of 52,645 payments had been made equating to £7.9m.

In terms of the proposed Local scheme, it was noted that the District Council had been allocated a budget of £211,350 to be paid out by 30th November 2022 with any unused funding being returned to the Government. Attention was drawn to the three categories of households which had been identified following an analysis of local demographics to identify households on low incomes and/or likely to have higher fuel costs, namely, Council Tax Support (CTS) claimants, Disabled Band Reduction (DBR) recipients in Bands F-H and Households with Council Tax exemptions N, S, U and W in Bands E-H.

In receiving the views of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Customers and Partnerships) and following commendations to the Revenues and Benefits Team for their hard work and efforts to date, Executive Members noted that South Cambridgeshire and East Cambridgeshire District Councils had adopted similar schemes. Whereupon it was

RESOLVED

  that the Huntingdonshire District Council’s Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme policy be approved.

The Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme Policy is to be presented to the Panel.

By means of a report by the Revenues and Benefits Manager (a copy of which has been appended in the Minute Book), the Energy Bills Rebate – Local Scheme was presented to the Panel.

Following a question from Councillor McAdam, the Panel heard that around 7,000 residents would initially benefit from the scheme.

Councillor Criswell praised the officers for the work that they had undertaken over the course of the pandemic in ensuring that the needs of residents had been met. He further welcomed the report and the pragmatic approach of the team to ensure best use of the funding available to the benefit of residents.

These sentiments were echoed by Councillor Bywater, who further enquired how residents would know that they were eligible for further support. The Panel heard that affected residents would be contacted directly and that a comprehensive communications plan was in place to support that message.

Following an enquiry from Councillor Shaw, the Panel heard that around 150 residents in Council Tax bands E to H would also benefit from the scheme having been identified as in receipt of Council Tax support.

Councillor Harvey enquired on the anticipated timescales for the project as it was observed that some residents were not yet in receipt of the initial rebate. The Panel heard that those residents who do not pay their Council Tax by direct debit had been contacted for their payment details but that this was a considerable piece of work. It was noted that should no contact be received from these residents by the end of July, their rebate would be credited to their Council Tax account in place of a payment to their bank account. The Panel were further appraised that the roll out of this proposed scheme would begin in August and is anticipated to run smoothly due to the payment detail collection and verification work done so far.

Following a question from Councillor Lowe, the Panel were advised that residents eligible for the rebate were identified on 1st April 2022. In the unlikely circumstance of a deceased resident since this date, the rebate would be passed to their estate.

Councillor Alban enquired whether this work had resulted in a positive increase in direct debit uptake. The Panel heard that this was indeed the case and that it was too early to tell if there would be any direct debit drop out following the initial increase.

The Panel were advised that eligible residents would be contacted directly but that Councillors would be able to signpost to a dedicated webpage should they receive any enquiries.

Having widely praised and welcomed the report, the Panel thereupon

RESOLVED

that the Cabinet be encouraged to endorse the recommendations within the report.