Council tax reduction in Scotland: October to December 2018

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, October to December 2018

This publication provides statistics on the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme, which reduces the Council Tax (CT) liability of lower income households 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 2018.

Key Points

• There were 473,410 CTR recipients in December 2018.
• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on CTR in December 2018 was £6.4 million.
• There were 78,970 fewer CTR recipients in December 2018 than at the beginning of the scheme in April 2013. This is a decline of 14.3 per cent. The fall in recipients is gradual, but CT and CTR reforms and increases in CT in April 2017 and further increases in April 2018 resulted in increases in the total weekly CTR awarded.

Chart 1: CTR Recipients and Income Foregone, April 2013 to December 2018

The number of CTR recipients for each local authority in October to December 2018 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, October to December 2018 ^{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.

Chart 1 on Page 1, shows fluctuation in CTR caseload between September and December 2018. The months of September to December saw the roll out of Universal Credit (UC) to several large local authorities including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. People in those areas (with some exceptions) were no longer being able to make new claims for the legacy benefits, such as Income Support, Employment Support Allowance, and Job Seekers Allowance. Legacy benefits were replaced by UC. CTR recipients on UC no longer "automatically" qualify for full CTR but have to claim for CTR instead.

It is likely that the roll out of UC caused this fluctuation in the number of CTR cases. Supporting this view is the data in Table 2 below, which shows the CTR recipients also in receipt of UC between September and December 2018.

Table 2: CTR Caseload in Receipt of UC - September to December 2018

Chart 2 shows the number of CTR recipients by local authority for December 2018 in descending order, with the cumulative total of recipients represented by the line. It can be seen that 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 2018. The five local authorities are

• Glasgow City with over 19 per cent (87,930 recipients) of the total;
• North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (36,090 recipients);
• Edinburgh City with 7 per cent (33,220 recipients);
• Fife with 7 per cent (30,850 recipients); and
• South Lanarkshire, with 6 per cent (29,690 recipients).

Chart 2: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, December 2018.

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in October, November and December 2018 is shown in Table 3. The total for Scotland was £6,391.2 million in December 2018. The income foregone also shows a fluctuation in October with a figure of £6,367.9 thousand compared to £6,510.7 thousand reported in September.

Table 3: Weekly Income Foregone by Local Authority, October to December 2018.^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.