Rutland County Council will be adopting a new Council Tax Reduction Scheme for people of working age from 1 April 2025, following a favourable 10-week public consultation and approval at cabinet on Tuesday 10 December 2024.
Council Tax Reduction is financial help towards paying Council Tax. You can claim Council Tax Reduction if you are already claiming other benefits such as Universal Credit. You may also claim it if you are working but on a low income.
The council is adopting a banded income scheme from 1 April 2025. No changes will be made in relation to pensioners within the support scheme and the council will continue to support care leavers up to their 25th birthday under the scheme. Existing working age claimants will automatically be moved over to the new banded scheme.
The key benefits of adopting a banded income scheme include:
- an online application form. This will allow households to apply quickly, and it will be easier to complete and administer
- households will be able to work out their level of support by looking at a simple banding rates table. This removes the complexity of the current scheme, making instalments more predictable month to month
- there will be fewer changes to instalments throughout the year, enabling households to budget better as their instalments will not change as frequently as they do now
- the scheme will be less time-consuming to administer and the Council hopes it may be able to make cost savings as a result
The changes made to the scheme also take into consideration factors such as the number of adults residing in the property (other than your partner), amount of savings, self-employed income, number of dependents etc.
Rutland County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Governance and Resources, Cllr Andrew Johnson said:
‘We’d like to thank all of those that have taken part in the consultation process, which highlighted large support for the changes from respondents and hope that claimants will benefit as we anticipate.’
‘The approved Council Tax Reduction Scheme will now provide households with stability in knowing that their council tax instalments are unlikely to change from month to month due to minor fluctuations in income, whilst also ensuring that those that need support the most are benefitted by the scheme.’
To find out more about the changes and the results of the public consultation please refer to the Cabinet report and minutes for 10th December 2024.
Following approval of the new policy, further information will be available on our website shortly, including details of the new policy, income bands and the reductions available. All information will be included on our Council Tax pages.