Issue details

1.  The Council is required to review the CTS scheme each year in accordance with schedule 1A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and decide to maintain or amend the scheme. Where changes to the scheme are proposed, Councils must publish a draft scheme and consult with local taxpayers and precepting authorities prior to implementation.

2.  The current CTS scheme has remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 2013, when its design was largely informed by Council Tax Benefit along with limits to the maximum amount of Council Tax liability that could be covered by the scheme. However, the introduction of Universal Credit (UC) has significantly increased the administrative burden for Councils, as the responsive nature of UC awards leads to high levels of changes to administer.

3.  Along with the Council’s commitments within the Corporate Plan to both prevent crisis and support those in crisis, and to deliver good quality, high value-for-money services, a reduction to the additional work generated by UC changes has been a key driver for a detailed review to be conducted. There has been a decline in caseload since CTS was first introduced and this has presented an opportunity to consider if support can be increased to further support low-income families through difficult economic times.

4.  Scheme design and modelling has been conducted with the support of industry experts ACS Ltd, who have worked with over 250 Local Authorities in relation to CTS and have assisted 95 LAs to successfully implement changes to their CTS schemes. Consideration has been given to national trends in CTS schemes alongside considerable analysis of our own data to develop a scheme to best support Huntingdonshire residents.