Purpose

 
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.