Proposed Amendments to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme

Summary

We are considering making an amendment to the MKC Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which if agreed will take effect from 1 April 2021.

The scheme itself reduces the council tax bill for people on a low income. Any changes in a households income over a certain threshold also changes the level of reduction and as a result a council tax bill is issued for a new amount.

The amendment seeks to introduce a tolerance rule on all working age cases, which would prevent the reissue of a council tax bill where the Council Tax Reduction award has changed by less than £0.51 a week.

This will only affect people who have a change in income, which in turn would change the level of their Council Tax Reduction by less than £0.51 a week. If this happens we are proposing to ignore the change in income so the person will not get a new council tax bill.

  • The people most likely to be affected are those who are working and have small changes in their earnings throughout the year. 
  • The increases in benefit, which occur every April are not affected by this proposal.
  • The calculation of all other aspects of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme such as disregards, allowances, premiums and the maximum award, will remain as they are now.
  • The change will not affect any general Council Tax, discounts and reductions such as the single person discount or disabled persons band reduction.

For more information on the proposed change, please see the links to the documents on the left hand side of this page.

Purpose

To seek views as to whether the change should be introduced.

 

How to share your views

Please complete our online survey

Or you can email or write to us to let us know if you agree with the proposal or think we should do something else.

 

The postal address is:

Revenues and Benefits Service

Council Tax Reduction Scheme Consultation

Milton Keynes Council,

Civic Offices,

1 Saxon Gate East

Milton Keynes

MK9 3EJ