Agenda item

report to follow

Tim Willis, Director of Corporate Resources introduced the item for discussion and made the following points:

• When Council agreed the 2017/18 Council Tax Support Scheme, Members also agreed to receive at a later date, proposals on an Exceptional Hardship Scheme to help mitigate (on a one off basis) those individuals/families most adversely affected by the changes to the Council Tax Support Scheme;
• Changes to the Council Tax Support Scheme were necessitated by the reduced government funding;
• It should be noted that the Council approved the Council Tax Support Scheme which is jointly the most generous in Kent;
• The proposed scheme is to be presented to Cabinet on 31 January and Council in February.

Members then sought further clarifications by asking questions and also made the following observations:

• They requested that the application form be presented to the Panel;
• The application form should be robust but fair and the scheme should be easily accessed by those who deserve support;
• The form was an intrinsic part of the scheme should be looked at by  the Panel;
• Further clarification was required for some of the wording used in the scheme. The scheme should not give too much discretion to the assessor but instead provide objective criteria that can used to ensure fair and consistent assessment of applications;
• The wording for one of the circumstances for awarding to a deserving person which read ‘the customer has not tried all other means to address the shortfall before making this application’ (on page 09 of the agenda pack) should be re-worded to perhaps read ‘the customer has not tried all other reasonable means to address the shortfall before making this application;’
• The wording for one of the criteria (on page 10 of the agenda pack) which read ‘all income received by the applicant, their partner and any member of their household irrespective of whether the income may fall to be disregarded under the Council Tax Support Scheme’ should read ‘all income received by the applicant, their partner and any member of their household irrespective of whether the income may be disregarded under the Council Tax Support Scheme;’
• There was a need to use plain English in the wording of the scheme;
• Was there a need to use random sampling to ensure that all changes of circumstances of those in receipt of the payments had been reported to the council?
• Were there any penalties in the event that someone was found to be defrauding the scheme?
• Will there be a cap on how much a recipient could receive?
• Could an applicant in exceptional hardship pay no council tax at all?

In response Mark Emery, Acting Head of Customer Delivery (EK Services) and Tim Willis provided the following comments:

• The application form does not exist as yet;
• EK Services would be administering the Exceptional Hardship Scheme;
• The Scheme would be administered in a similar theme and spirit as the one currently used to administer the discretionary housing payments scheme which has been operational for a number of years;
• The form would be available mainly on the Council website but will also be available in paper form;
• The awards would be for a single year and any new awards will only be based on a new application;
• The awards may run for the full year or cover a part of the year depending on the circumstances of the individual;
• There was no assumption that the award would be renewed after a new year;
• The amount of money set aside for the scheme was not highlighted in the report because the main purpose of the report was to afford Members to debate the content and nature of the scheme without being bogged down by the amount set aside for the scheme;
• The application of the scheme was dependent on the final version to be adopted by each of the partner local councils;
• The scheme would be administered alongside the housing benefits and council tax support. Customers were required to notify the council on change of circumstances. EK Services would be able to identify cases of fraud when they arise;
• In general council tax legislation there was an ability to suspend the award of benefits and award a penalty if a case of fraud was detected. However with regards to the proposed scheme the officers would get back to Members with a more definitive response (if a case of fraud was detected in the Exceptional Hardship Scheme);
• If a customer was removed from all assistance and were in exceptional hardship circumstances (in extreme cases), there could be consideration for them to be exempt from paying council tax for the appropriate period of time.

In summing up debate on the item, the Chairman said that there was a need to put more detailed information on criteria to be used, appropriate wording and time scales (where appropriate) in the scheme.

Subject to the amendments suggested by the Panel, Members agreed to recommend the proposed scheme to Cabinet for onward submission to Council.