Issue - meetings

The Revenue Support Manager presented the Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy 2026/27.

Cabinet was advised that the authority reviewed the content of the Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy on an annual basis.  The Council had discretionary powers to amend or reduce Council Tax, including through assessment on a case-by-case basis.  Decisions on Council Tax reduction were subject to a review process and tax payers could appeal decisions if they disagreed with the decision made by the authority.

The Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy needed to support speedy and transparent decision-making.  In addition, Tribunals expected Councils to have a policy for discretionary Council Tax reductions.

Within the Council’s existing Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy there were four criteria:

·             Reductions for care leavers aged 25 or under.  Worcestershire County Council worked with the authority to help clarify eligible candidates.

·             The flood recovery framework, which applied to householders that had been impacted by a flooding incident.

·             Any other Government additional support.

·             Other cases, which were assessed on a case-by-case basis under exceptional hardship arrangements.

In the updated policy, an additional category was proposed in respect of Council Tax reductions for households in which there was a resident who was terminally ill.  This additional category had been proposed following receipt of communications from charities that supported people who were terminally ill and their carers.  Previously, the position of residents who were terminally ill had been considered in relation to exceptional hardship arrangements.

In considering the proposed new category, Members were asked to note that this reduction would not apply to every household in which there was a resident who was terminally ill.  Before a decision would be taken, the Council would consider the financial income for the household.  There would be a need to achieve a balance in decision-making between providing appropriate levels of financial support and meeting the authority’s duty of care.

Consideration had originally been given to amending the policy in this manner in January 2026.  However, Officers had been asked to research practices in other parts of the country before taking this forward.  Subsequently, Officers had established that none of the Councils in South Worcestershire had included this category in their Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policies and neither had Wyre Forest District Council.  All of these authorities assessed Council Tax reductions in relation to hardship arrangements when supporting terminally ill residents.  There were some larger local authorities, including Manchester City Council and Bristol City Council that had already introduced this category alongside Redditch Borough Council and different approaches had been adopted at these authorities.

During consideration of this item, the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board advised that the report had been scrutinised at a meeting of the Finance and Budget Working Group.  During this meeting, there had been two distinct views that had been raised by Members:

·             Some Members had argued that if a resident was terminally ill the evidence of that illness should be sufficient for that resident to be eligible for discretionary Council Tax reduction without means  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33