FAQs
What is Council Tax Support (CTS)?
The CTS scheme helps residents on low incomes to pay their Council Tax. The level of discount is based on the income and size of the household.
Under the current scheme a working-age household liable for Council Tax could get up to 85% of the bill paid discounted through the scheme, dependent upon their circumstances.
What is the current CTS scheme?
Currently, the amount of support a household can receive is based on an ‘income banded discount scheme'.
The scheme operates by offering a discount in the payable Council Tax based on the household income and size.
Households are divided into income bands. Each band gives a % discount off the Council Tax bill. This is the CTS award.
Households with lower incomes are placed in lower bands and receive a higher discount from their Council Tax bill.
How much does the CTS scheme cost the Council?
The current CTS scheme supports 16,170 residents and costs the Council £17.6 million per year
Why is the Council proposing to make changes to a new CTS scheme?
Like the vast majority of Council’s Barking & Dagenham is facing an extremely challenging financial situation. A further £25m must be saved in 2025/26 on top of reductions to expenditure already made to balance the budget.
We must set a balanced budget each year by law, which means the amount we plan to spend cannot be more than the income we expect to receive.
We are therefore proposing a new set of options for the CTS scheme for 2025/26 to support our requirements to set a balanced budget.
What CTS scheme is the Council proposing to introduce?
The Council is proposing to retain the current income banded discount scheme with some changes.
The income band thresholds (household income) that determine the level of the discount will be increased but the overall level of the discount will be reduced for all the discount bands and some bands will be removed.
Deductions for non-dependent adults in the property will be increased from £7.50 to £15 per week.
This will reduce the overall level of the discount (the CTS award).
No other changes are proposed.
Who will this affect?
The changes to the CTS Scheme will affect working age (aged 16 to 66) households in Barking & Dagenham who will get CTS from 01 April 2025.
This will affect 11,673 households currently in receipt of CTS and any new applications for CTS from April 2025.
Pension age (aged 66 or over) households will not see any change as the scheme to support this group is set out by Central Government.
How do the proposed changes affect me?
If you are of working age and currently receiving CTS or make an application for CTS after the 01 April 2025 you will experience changes to your award.
Changes to the CTS scheme will result in a significantly lower level of support for all working age applicants than would have been received had the scheme remain unchanged.