Purpose

Thanet District Council has the
discretion to design its own Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme for
working-age customers. The scheme is agreed on an annual basis as
part of the Tax Base decision-making process. The current scheme is
no longer fit for purpose in light of the government’s
‘Move to Universal Credit’ programme, and therefore the
current scheme needs updating and modernising. To make changes to
the CTS scheme, for the coming year, it is necessary to complete
meaningful consultation with the public. This report outlines the
proposed changes to the scheme and recommends that permission is
granted to start the necessary consultation process.

Decision

Cabinet agreed the following:
 
1. 
That a consultation
process is completed with a view to modifying the Council Tax
Scheme for working-age customers for the financial year
2026/2027.

Reasons for the decision

There are a number of reasons why this
decision was taken and theses are included within the main report
however the following are two of the key reasons:
 
The current CTS scheme has a maximum award of
a 90% reduction in the Council Tax charge. The proposed scheme
increases this to 100% which assists over 6,000 of the poorest
households in the district. This change would mean that over 6,000
households within the district would no longer need to make payment
of Council Tax for the relevant financial year.
 
The current CTS scheme is based on a
traditional Council Tax Benefit (CTB) model. When a customer is in
receipt of Universal Credit, this can cause some operational issues
which can have an impact on our customers. By April 2026 over 98%
of the working-age CTS caseload will be in receipt of Universal
Credit. Thanet is the only remaining Council in Kent who administer
a CTB based scheme.

Alternative options considered

No consultation is held and the Council Tax
Support  Scheme remains unchanged in
2026/2027. This is not considered a viable or sustainable
option