Cuts to maximum council tax benefit rates which would have hit thousands of Nottingham city households have been scrapped.
Around one in five of all local households get help with their bills from Nottingham City Council’s council tax support scheme.
The total fund costs the authority £30m every year. A consultation ran towards the end of last year on proposed changes to reduce the struggling authority’s costs.
The current scheme provides a maximum amount of 80 per cent support for bills for working-age claimants; however, the council had been consulting on whether to reduce this to as low as 30 per cent.
According to documents published ahead of a meeting of the council’s executive members on 21 January, cuts to the 80 per cent maximum amount now won’t go ahead.
Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab), leader of the council, says any decision to slash this figure has been avoided because the authority is now in an “improved financial situation”.
However, hundreds of households still face some changes, because the council is still looking to save £260,000 from the scheme.
The council has proposed to start calculating the support households get using council tax band B.
This means people living in band C to H properties – who pay more council tax owing to the size of their homes – will only get the same support a band B property gets.
According to documents, this is likely to impact 671 households.
Where an applicant has more than £6,000 in capital, such as savings, stocks, shares, and property, they will not be entitled to support.
This has been reduced from £16,000.
This change is expected to impact 199 households.
Around 568 households will further be hit by an increase to the minimum level of support from 50p to £5 per week.
Where an assessment results in a weekly award of less than £5 per week, the applicant will not be entitled to any support, documents say.
Finally, the council has proposed to introduce a minimum level of income for self-employed claimants.
The minimum level of income would be equivalent to minimum wage for 35 hours per week, or 16 hours per week for lone parents.
Cllr Khan (Lab) added:
“We recently carried out a public consultation as part of a review of Nottingham’s scheme, which has been in place since 2013.
“Following the consultation, a recommendation is being made to the council’s Executive Board that the scheme continues to provide a maximum amount of 80 per cent support for working-age claimants.
“This will ensure that eligible low-income households continue to get the level of support they need. Minor changes are being proposed which will provide savings and make administering the scheme more efficient.
“Last year, we were in a position that would have required us to reduce the scheme, as other councils are currently considering.
“However, we are no longer in that position due to our improved financial situation as a result of a combination of factors, including the improvements we have been making to get our house in order by putting the council on a sustainable financial footing, becoming a renewed council, delivering for local people, and leading Nottingham forward.”
A final decision will be made on the changes next Tuesday (21 January) during a Nottingham City Council executive board meeting.
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