Cabinet considered the proposed scheme criteria for the Discretionary Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Asset Management & Commercialisation, Finance, & Ascot?explained that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) had provided local authorities with funding under the £150 Council Tax Energy Rebate announced earlier in the year. While the majority of funding, £4.5m, was provided for the Mandatory Scheme for those whose main home was in Council Tax Band A-D, a small amount of funding, £294,000, had been provided for a Discretionary Scheme. Local authorities are required to design a Discretionary Scheme and distribute the funding provided by 30 November 2022.

Each local authority was required to design and implement a Discretionary Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme for those in council tax band E-H, who were identified as financially vulnerable, and not entitled to the Mandatory Scheme for those in Band A-D. The discretionary funding could also be used to provide additional support to those in Band A-D identified as financially vulnerable. Although DLHUC required authorities to design their own Discretionary Scheme they had provided guidance which set out some basic criteria which must be adhered to, some of which mirrored those set for the Mandatory scheme. These included:

·         That the property must be occupied as the individual’s main home

·         That the property was not in exemption class “O” i.e. a Ministry of Defence property since the MOD was looking to provide cost of living support itself.

·         Allocations must be distributed, or returned to government, by 30 November 2022.

·         That pre-payment checks had been undertaken where the person receiving payment was not a “live” direct debit payer.

Consideration had been given to how best to identify those who may be considered financially vulnerable, and therefore suffering hardship because of the rising cost of living, balancing this against the requirement to distribute the funding as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Council Tax Reduction (CTR) was a means tested benefit which the Royal Borough already assessed resident’s entitlement to. Being in receipt of this financial assistance therefore meant that the resident was on a low income. It was therefore proposed that these records be utilised to distribute funding to residents by awarding those who had already received the £150 Mandatory payments, by virtue of being in Band A-D, a top up of £50 and awarding those in Bands E-H, on CTR in April 2022, a one-off payment of £200. Based on modelled figures, this would utilise all but £50 of the funding available.

As with the Mandatory scheme the proposal was to make an automatic BACS

payment to those whose bank details had already been verified. For anyone else, in order to comply with the DLHUC pre-payment checks required, an application would be invited. If this did not elicit a response, the eligible party’s

Council Tax account would be credited with the award, as the deadline approached.

Councillor Hilton confirmed that all direct debit payers in the borough had been paid the original rebate by April 2022. It was believed that 5371 eligible residents had not yet made an application.

Councillor Hilton placed on record the thanks of Cabinet to the Revenues and Benefits team which had administered all the schemes.

Councillor Rayner applauded the simplicity of the designed scheme.

Councillor Price asked whether the scheme would capture those who were ‘just about managing’ (JAMs).

Councillor Hilton responded that no scheme put forward by the government specifically covered JAMs, nor was there an accepted definition. The Head of Head of Revenues, Benefits, Library & Resident Services commented that commented that the council would encourage anyone having difficulty to apply for Council Tax support.

The Executive Director of People Services explained that the Housing Support Fund allocated £0.5m to residents over the six month period ending September 2022. There was a wide range of flexibility for councils with a couple of notable changes to previous iterations. One third was required to be spent on those of pensionable age; one third on families with children; one third was flexible. The ambition was to provide a scheme with a minimal application process. There were three funding routes:

·         Maintaining fee school meal vouchers

·         Pensioners in receipt of Council Tax reduction benefit

·         An allocation to the housing service to support those at risk of becoming unintentionally homeless.

The Executive Director of Resources commented that anyone in receipt of correspondence from the council about the £150 scheme not paying by direct debit was encouraged to make an application as soon as possible.

Councillor Davey referred to a resident who had struggled to get to the library to provide the appropriate documentation. He questioned why the council did not just credit the funding to people’s Council Tax accounts.

The Executive Director of Resources explained that customer service support was available for those in need. The council had heard about the scheme at the same time as the public and was bound by the rules set out by central government. Pre-payment checks were required.

Councillor Singh referenced a BBC report that only 49% of people not paying by direct debit had received the funding nationally. He was concerned by the figure of over 5000 in the borough particularly as St Marys had a high proportion of people on a low income. He asked if the funds were not claimed by November would they be returned to central government.

The Executive Director of Resources reiterated that the council had made it clear it did not wish to return any funding. The funding was not a Council Tax rebate, it was meant to help with energy costs therefore wherever possible the council wanted to pay it into the individual’s bank account rather than as a credit to their Council Tax account. If someone was in debt on their Council Tax account, the credit would just reduce the amount owed rather than going into their pocket to help with energy bills. A refund could be requested but it was a manual process that took significant resources.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet notes the report and:

i) Approves the proposed scheme criteria for the Discretionary Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme.

ii) Delegates authority for minor changes to the Head of Revenues, Benefits, Library and Resident Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Asset Management & Commercialisation, Finance & Ascot.