Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, October to December 2015

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, October to December 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 from local authorities, and cover the time period October to December 2015.

Key Points

• There were 505,270 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in December 2015.

• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in December 2015 was £6.4 million.

• The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland has gradually decreased by 8.5 per cent (47,110 recipients) between the beginning of the scheme in Scotland in April 2013, and December 2015.

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

The number of recipients for each local authority in October, November and December 2015 is shown in Table 1. The total number of recipients in Scotland decreased from 512,340 in September 2015 to 505,270 in December 2015. This is similar to the pattern seen in the same months in previous years.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, October to December 2015 ^{1, 2}

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 December 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 December 2015. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland's CTR recipients, with 19 per cent (93,520) of the total. The other four authorities with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (38,820 recipients); Edinburgh City, accounting for 7 per cent (36,470 recipients); and Fife and South Lanarkshire, accounting for 6 per cent each (32,250 and 32,040 recipients respectively).

Figure 1: Treemap of CTR recipients by Local Authority, December 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 October, November and December 2015 is shown in Table 2. The total for Scotland decreased slightly to £6.4 million in December, reflecting the decrease in the number of recipients.

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

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.