[Earl Piggott-Smith]

A report was recently considered by our scrutiny board about the localised council tax benefit support sceheme. Councillors were asked to comment on the options for introducing the scheme in April 2013.

I am interested in finding out the work being done by scrutiny panels in other areas to consider the implications of the change and also if there any discussions with neighbouring authorities about the possible impact of such schemes on their own scheme - for example, if their council tax benefit scheme is likely to be more or less generous financially.

[Paul Ansell]

Hello Earl

We have a task group on localisation of council tax support, but it hasn't yet met and has rather missed the boat in terms of influencing the draft scheme which needs to go to Cabinet next month. The review is now likely to concentrate on the consultation process.

I'll keep you posted if anything potentially useful comes out of this.

Incidentally, I know that the issue of comparability with nearby councils' schemes is a factor that is definitely on our Benefits Manager's agenda but I doubt whether discussoin with the other councils will form part of the review.

Paul

[Earl Piggott-Smith]

(10-07-2012 03:48 PM)Paul Ansell Wrote:  Hello Earl

We have a task group on localisation of council tax support, but it hasn't yet met and has rather missed the boat in terms of influencing the draft scheme which needs to go to Cabinet next month. The review is now likely to concentrate on the consultation process.

I'll keep you posted if anything potentially useful comes out of this.

Incidentally, I know that the issue of comparability with nearby councils' schemes is a factor that is definitely on our Benefits Manager's agenda but I doubt whether discussoin with the other councils will form part of the review.

Paul

Hi Paul, thanks for the reply. Yes, please keep me informed of developments. The options for a localised council tax scheme was discussed at a special meeting .

The members supported the preferred option of maintaining the existing council tax benefit scheme rather than the option of making changes to the eligibility criteria or to apply a cap on maximum entitlement.

I did speak to someone at Jobcentre Plus about the potential for different schemes to operate and the implications of such a change. I suspect things will become clearer over the next few months.