Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, July to September 2015

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, July to September 2015

This publication provides statistics on the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme, which reduces the Council Tax liability of vulnerable people in Scotland. A CTR 'recipient' can be a single person or a couple, with or without children, since Council Tax is charged on a per-dwelling basis, rather than to individuals.

The statistics are based on data extracts and statistical returns from local authorities, and cover the time period July to September 2015.

 

Key Points

• There were 512,340 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in September 2015.

 

• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in September 2015 was £6.5 million.

 

• The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland gradually decreased by 7.2 per cent (40,040 recipients) between the beginning of the scheme in Scotland in April 2013, and September 2015.

 

Chart 1: CTR recipients in Scotland, April 2013 to September 2015

 

The number of recipients for each local authority in July, August and September 2015 is shown in Table 1. The total number of recipients in Scotland increased slightly between July and August, from 515,270 to 515,960 before decreasing in September to 512,340. These changes are similar to those seen in the same months in previous years.

 

Table 1: CTR recipients by Local Authority: July to September 2015 ^{1, 2}

	Jul-15	Aug-15	Sep-15
SCOTLAND	515,270	515,960	512,340
Aberdeen City	13,520	13,580	13,460
Aberdeenshire	11,450	11,490	11,400
Angus	9,080	9,080	9,040
Argyll and Bute	7,380	7,340	7,280
Clackmannanshire	5,480	5,410	5,400
Dumfries and Galloway	13,790	13,820	13,760
Dundee City	19,130	19,080	18,830
East Ayrshire	14,790	14,800	14,690
East Dunbartonshire	5,810	5,880	5,830
East Lothian	7,710	7,690	7,610
East Renfrewshire	4,950	4,920	4,880
Edinburgh, City of	37,260	37,360	36,830
Eilean Siar	2,470	2,500	2,480
Falkirk	14,420	14,470	14,340
Fife	33,210	33,280	33,130
Glasgow City	95,220	95,610	95,150
Highland	17,780	17,740	17,640
Inverclyde	10,340	10,300	10,240
Midlothian	7,050	7,050	7,020
Moray	6,060	6,040	5,980
North Ayrshire	18,150	18,180	18,150
North Lanarkshire	39,440	39,460	39,320
Orkney Islands	1,250	1,250	1,220
Perth and Kinross	9,460	9,560	9,460
Renfrewshire	19,600	19,700	19,500
Scottish Borders	9,160	9,180	9,080
Shetland Islands	1,080	1,060	1,040
South Ayrshire	11,870	11,950	11,900
South Lanarkshire	33,010	32,850	32,650
Stirling	6,150	6,160	6,140
West Dunbartonshire	13,230	13,260	13,090
West Lothian	15,960	15,900	15,810

Notes:
¹ Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
² Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.

 

Figure 1 shows CTR recipients by local authority for September 2015 in a treemap, using the data from Table 1. This allows a visual comparison of the number of recipients in each local authority. The five local authorities with the highest numbers of CTR recipients accounted for almost half (46 per cent) of the total for Scotland in September 2015. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland's CTR recipients, with 19 per cent (95,150) of the total. The other four authorities with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (39,320 recipients); Edinburgh City, accounting for 7 per cent (36,830 recipients); and Fife and South Lanarkshire, accounting for 6 per cent each (33,130 and 32,650 recipients respectively).

 

Figure 1: Treemap of CTR recipients by Local Authority, September 2015

Key: 1 = Eilean Siar
        2 = Orkney Islands
        3 = Shetland Islands
        Clacks = Clackmannanshire
        East Dunb. = East Dunbartonshire
        East Renf. = East Renfrewshire
        West Dunb. = West Dunbartonshire

 

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in July, August and September 2015 is shown in Table 2. The total weekly income foregone for Scotland was £6.5 million in all three months, with slight changes reflecting the change in the number of recipients.

 

Table 2: CTR weekly estimate of income foregone (£000's) by Local Authority, July to September 2015 ^{1, 2, 3}

	Jul-15	Aug-15	Sep-15
SCOTLAND	6,537.0	6,545.3	6,509.8
Aberdeen City	176.6	177.2	176.3
Aberdeenshire	140.6	141.0	140.3
Angus	101.3	101.3	101.0
Argyll and Bute	104.3	103.8	103.1
Clackmannanshire	66.2	65.5	65.7
Dumfries and Galloway	163.0	163.3	162.7
Dundee City	238.1	237.4	234.7
East Ayrshire	179.8	180.0	178.9
East Dunbartonshire	85.7	86.7	86.0
East Lothian	100.7	100.6	99.8
East Renfrewshire	71.4	71.0	70.3
Edinburgh, City of	499.9	500.6	495.0
Eilean Siar	27.4	27.7	27.5
Falkirk	158.4	159.0	157.9
Fife	393.1	394.3	392.9
Glasgow City	1,313.4	1,317.9	1,312.3
Highland	230.7	230.1	229.0
Inverclyde	126.8	126.5	126.3
Midlothian	97.6	97.5	96.9
Moray	71.9	71.7	71.1
North Ayrshire	222.0	222.4	222.7
North Lanarkshire	458.8	458.8	457.2
Orkney Islands	14.1	14.1	13.9
Perth and Kinross	124.1	125.5	124.7
Renfrewshire	249.7	251.0	249.0
Scottish Borders	104.7	104.9	104.1
Shetland Islands	12.2	12.0	11.8
South Ayrshire	159.9	161.1	161.0
South Lanarkshire	395.7	393.9	392.2
Stirling	82.8	82.9	82.6
West Dunbartonshire	176.6	177.2	175.1
West Lothian	189.3	188.4	187.9

Notes:

¹ Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
² Weekly income foregone estimates are based on 'number of recipients multiplied by average weekly reduction' for each local authority and benefit type for the given month.
³ Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.