Council Tax benefit consultation
From Cllr Ken Meeson, Leader of Solihull Council on 10 August 2012
Solihull Council is asking people for their views on its proposed local scheme for council tax benefits.
From April next year, the government is abolishing the national council tax benefit scheme and replacing it with local council tax support schemes. The current scheme is wholly funded by the government but from next year, the Government funding will be passed to the Council but will be reduced by £1.5m. This means that there will be less money available to support people currently eligible for benefit to pay their council tax.
Every Council will need to decide its own approach to paying council tax benefit.
The Council is proposing that, next year, it will continue to give council tax benefits in the same way as it currently does. However, this means that the £1.5m shortfall will have to be found from other services.
Councillor Ken Meeson, Leader of the Council, said: “We are proposing not to make any changes to the council tax benefits scheme for next year as we wish to use the time to develop services to support people back into work before making any changes to their benefit. We will need to find the £1.5m from other areas of the Council. We’d like to know what people think of this proposal and would encourage people to fill in the short online survey.”
The survey is available at www.solihull.gov.uk/consultation and people can make comments up to 26 September 2012.
Angharad Lynch 0121 704 6164
Email: alynch@solihull.gov.uk