HBC: Have your say on Council tax support

Local people are being asked for their views about how the Council should fund Council Tax Support from next April, in a consultation which will run for twelve weeks from 7th September to 29th November.

There are three options available for Hyndburn residents to consider, option 1 is to raise the minimum Council Tax contribution paid by working age benefit claimants from 20% to 27%, option 2 is to raise Council Tax for all Hyndburn residents by 1%, or option 3 is for the Council to make savings by cutting or reducing other services. Whichever option the Council chooses after the consultation, changes to Council Tax Support will not affect any pension age benefit claimants, which from April 2016 includes anyone over the age of 63.

Council Leader, Cllr Miles Parkinson, said; “The context of this is that in 2013 the Government abolished Council Tax Benefit and reduced the funding available to local Councils to fund its replacement, Council Tax Support. Here in Hyndburn, after an extensive public consultation, we asked working age Council Tax Support claimants to pay a minimum contribution of 20% towards their Council Tax Bill. Next year the Council faces even further reduced funding from Government, so along with many other Councils, we must now have to decide how to fund our Council Tax Support scheme from 2016 and need to know which option local residents would prefer.”

Cllr Parkinson added; “These are difficult decisions and we want all Hyndburn residents to have their say and let us know which of the three options they think is best. Residents can send in their views from 7th September until 29th November. It’s easy to take part; you can complete the questionnaire on line, on paper or over the phone, whichever is best for you.”

The implications of the three options are:

Option 1: Raise the minimum Council Tax contribution paid by working age benefit claimants from 20% to 27%. This would increase an annual Band A Council Tax bill for a working age CTS claimant by £56 for a single person and by £74 for a standard bill. This option would affect all working age claimants of CTS – currently 5,014 households.

Option 2: Raise Council Tax for all Hyndburn residents. The funding we need to find is £34,429. Raising this money via Council Tax would require a 1% increase to Hyndburn’s element of Council Tax in 2016. An annual Band A Council Tax bill (with no CTS applied) would rise by £1.19 a year for a single person and £1.58 a year for a standard bill. This would affect all households in Hyndburn, including those claiming Council Tax Support.

Option 3: Make savings by cutting or reducing other services. Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Police and Lancashire Fire and Rescue all receive funds from Council Tax and together we need to find an additional £229,531 in savings. Hyndburn’s proportion of this is 15% or £34,429. Depending on which services would be reduced to find this saving, this option could affect all households in Hyndburn.

To have your say on the future of Council Tax support in Hyndburn visit www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/counciltaxsupport, email enquiries enquiries@hyndburnbc.gov.uk or call us call on 01254 388111 to request a questionnaire, or we’ll be happy to help you complete it over the phone.

The deadline for returning the questionnaire is 29 November 2015 and results will be published in December 2015.