Council Tax Support

Welcome to the Council Tax Support engagement page.

London Borough of Harrow's consultation on Council Tax Support will run from 9 August to 23:59 on 27 October 2024.

What is this about?

The council is considering changing the amount of Council Tax Support that some people get towards their bill. We want your views on the proposed changes and any impact they would have on your household.

Two out of three Council Tax Support claimants - the most vulnerable households in the borough and pensioners - would be protected from any changes to financial support. You can get an idea how you might be affected with our step-by-step guide.

We want to ensure the scheme continues to be viable and affordable in future.

Council Tax Support is a benefit that helps people to pay their Council Tax bill. By law, the council must review each year how much it spends on Council Tax Support.

We're proposing some new criteria for awarding Council Tax Support and want to understand how these would affect different people. If these changes were made in their entirety, the council would save £1.3 million in 2025/6.

Why are we doing this?

We've seen a large increase in the amount of money we spend on this support. Next year we are predicting to spend more than £19 million on Council Tax Support if we don't implement the changes - that's an increase of more than £5 million compared with 2015 and our general expectation is that it will continue to grow.

The council needs to make savings – in the next three years, we are facing a £15.3 million deficit. In February 2024 we reported a current budget gap of £10.880m for 2025/26 and £6.732 million 2026/27.

It's a legal requirement that the council lives within its means and offers services it knows it can afford in the long term. Other councils are facing the same challenge and a number of them are also looking at how much they spend on Council Tax Support. Taking no action could put the council in financial difficulty and affect its ability to provide services.

Reductions to Council Tax Support are being looked at together with other ways the council can save money.

We want to make sure that Council Tax Support continues to be available to support our most vulnerable residents now and in the future. We believe the fairest way to do that is to ask others, for instance those able to work, to contribute more.

If these changes are implemented, we're proposing to provide a fund offering one-off support for those most affected.

Who gets Council Tax Support and who would be affected by these proposals?

12,800 households in Harrow receive Council Tax Support.

There are 4,600 households that are of state pensionable age and are not affected by these proposals.

There are 4,000 households that are classified as vulnerable under the scheme. 3,755 of these householders are not affected by these proposals. The other 245 have one or more independent adults at home that under the proposals would be asked to contribute more.

There are 4,200 households who are not classified as vulnerable under the scheme. These would be affected by these proposals if they were to go ahead

Under these proposed changes, 2 out of 3 claimants - the most vulnerable households in the borough and pensioners - would be protected from any changes to financial support.

Please note that the number of households stated above are approximate and based on the current Council Tax Support caseload. This is expected to change by the time any amendments to the Council Tax Support scheme are made in 2025, if the proposals are agreed. They have been included to give an indication of the numbers that could be affected.

There are lots of ways in which a person can be vulnerable - you can see the definition we use for the Council Tax Support scheme in our FAQs. There's a question in the survey about whether you think anyone is missed from this category.

Will I be affected by these changes?

We've created a step-by-step guide which will show whether you are likely to be affected by the proposed changes. We've also produced an easy read document that sets out the information on this page.

Or you can come along to one of our events to find out more.

What are the proposed changes?

How to get involved with the consultation

• Read the Easy Read document on Council Tax Support changes.
• Try the Step-by-Step Guide to see if you are affected
• Attend one of our drop-in sessions - there are seven already organised with more to come, see the Drop in Events panel for more info
• Let us know your views on Council Tax Support by filling out the survey below.
• Please note that the survey is the best way to give us your views. We do have an email address which is cts.consultation@harrow.gov.uk but please use the survey if you can. This email is for the consultation only.

What are the aims of the consultation?

• Inform the community and build awareness of the purpose and potential implications of proposed changes to Council Tax Support
• Undertake consultation on Council Tax Support that is meaningful, inclusive and transparent to understand the community's views on proposed changes to Council Tax Support
• Use that feedback to inform any appropriate changes to Council Tax Support from April 2025 onwards.

We will conduct this consultation according to the council's consultation standards, and will feed back to the community to let them know that we have listened and acted on the information they provided.

What happens after the consultation has finished?

No decision has been made to make any of these changes – the results of this consultation will show us how different people would be affected. We'll look very carefully at these results before making any decision.

Once the consultation period has ended the feedback will be collated and a public report presented at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet in December 2024. If changes to the scheme are proposed, the new scheme will then go to Council for approval before it goes live from April 2025.

We will write a report about the views we have collected, which includes this survey. If changes are implemented, we will show how they have shaped any changes. The report will be added to this page.