Dover District Council is proposing to make some changes to its existing Council Tax Support scheme, to provide additional support to help households in the district address the cost of living, and your views are sought.
Each year, the Council has to decide whether to change the Council Tax Support scheme for working age people in its area. Council Tax Support is a discount for Council Tax, and the level of discount is based on the income of the household. At the moment, the maximum discount available for working age households is 90% of Council Tax, (for pensioners this is up to 100%).
The council is consulting on the following changes to the Council Tax Support scheme for 2023/24:
- Increasing the maximum period of time that the start date of a new application can be backdated from one month to three months
- Introducing a clause allowing the Council to disregard any income in the calculation of CTS that is classed as local welfare provision. An example of this is an Energy Rebate Scheme payment
- Disregarding the child care element of Universal Credit from the CTS calculation.
Cllr Chris Vinson, DDC Cabinet Member for Finance said: “These changes will boost our support for the most vulnerable in our community. We already have one of the most generous Council Tax Support schemes in Kent, and this will improve it even further. We want to know what people think of the proposals, and hope as many people as possible will take the chance to review the proposals and to give feedback on them.”
All the feedback we receive will be reported to councillors who will make a final decision on whether to implement the changes. If the proposed changes are made, they will take effect from 1 April 2023.
For more information, please see our Council Tax Support Scheme pages – or have your say by completing our questionnaire before 5pm on Monday 31 October.
Posted on 04 October 2022