Council Tax Reduction scheme supports almost 500,000 Scots

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today released the latest Council Tax Reduction (CTR) statistics.

In June 2020, Scotland’s CTR scheme supported 497,960 households and the total weekly income forgone by local authorities was £7.334 million.

The publication covers the period when some of the wider impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began to affect the CTR figures.

The total number of CTR recipients in Scotland increased sharply in April 2020 with further increases recorded during this quarter as a result of the economic impacts of COVID-19.

The total weekly CTR awarded in April 2020 and during the quarter increased as a result of the rise in CTR recipients.

This was also caused by an annual rise in Council Tax bills – an agreement between the Scottish Government and local government means that locally determined Council Tax increases are capped at 4.84 per cent in 2020-21. The weekly income forgone figure is now at its highest level since the scheme began.

Background 

Read the full statistical publication: Council Tax Reduction in Scotland - April to June 2020.

This publication contains figures on CTR recipients and income forgone by local authorities, covering the time period from April to June 2020. You can access statistics for each month since April 2013 on the Scottish Government website.

This information is used by the Scottish Government, interested bodies and the general public to monitor the number of people receiving CTR and the amount being spent on the scheme. The figures are used to help distribute CTR funding for future years.

The tables showing CTR recipients and income forgone in each local authority have been published for quarter 1 in 2020-21 and will be updated during the year. An annual compendium will be published in June 2021 covering the period from April 2020 to March 2021 and will include detailed information on CTR recipients and their characteristics.

Find out more about CTR statistics, including previous publications.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – learn more about the standards of official statistics in Scotland.