How the LCTS scheme for 2013/14 was agreed

From 31 March 2013, the Government ended Council Tax Benefit as part of its Welfare Reform Act and it will be replaced by a new local scheme called Local Council Tax Support (LCTS), which will be designed and run by each council. Government funding allocated to councils for LCTS will fell to below 90% of its previous Council Tax Benefit spend.

• Council Tax Benefit Reforms leaflet (PDF) [191KB] ​​​​​​​
   

How the Scheme was agreed

Following consultation Uttlesford District Council changed its proposals which were considered at the Cabinet meeting on 20 November 2012 and Full Council at the meeting on 11 December 2012.

The document below contains the rules for the 2013/14 Scheme:

• Uttlesford District Council - Council Tax Reduction Scheme Policy 13a and Schedule 1a of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (PDF) [1MB]

Consultation

The Local Council Tax Support scheme has been agreed after district and borough councils in the county have worked together with Essex County Council to design, develop and deliver a framework for the new schemes and tackle the reduction in funding. For Uttlesford District Council, this means a drop of half a million pounds from its current spend of £4 million which supports around 4,000 households in the district.

Pensioners are protected from any reduction to their benefit payments - this safeguards Council Tax support for around 2000 pensioners currently in receipt of council tax benefit in the Uttlesford district. However, the support given to those of working age will need to reduce, to compensate for this.

In the Local Council Tax Support Scheme Consultation invited residents to comment on the following proposals for Uttlesford :

• Those people who have a disability are protected from the changes;
• All working age claimants will pay a minimum of 20% of their Council Tax bill;
• Work will be encouraged by raising the level of earnings before benefit payments are affected;
• To focus support on those most in need, the maximum level of savings below which claimants can still apply for support will be reduced to £6,000;
• Child benefit and maintenance payments will be taken into account when calculating entitlement to support.

An eight week public consultation ran from Monday, 6 August, until Friday, 28 September 2012 to enable residents to comment on the draft proposal. The consultation is now closed.

The feedback received was considered by Uttlesford Cabinet. A proposed final scheme was considered and a scheme agreed by the Full Council at the meeting on 11 December 2012.

Download Adobe Reader

The viewer that is needed to display the pdf document(s) is free and may be downloaded from the Adobe Website.