Find out about our Council Tax Support hardship grant for 2022/2023
About the grant
The government previously announced a number of measures to help people during the coronavirus outbreak. One of these was to give us funding to provide a Council Tax Support (CTS) Hardship grant for working age people in our area who receive CTS.
Not all of this funding has been spent so we have decided to use it to provide a CTS Hardship grant for this year. The scheme will have the same rules as before and will provide an award of up to £75. It will only apply for 2022/2023.
The Hardship Grant payable is the lower of:
- £75, or
- your Council Tax liability for 2022/2023 from the start date of your CTS claim
If you qualify for the grant we will award it automatically and you will receive an updated council tax bill. The grant shows on your bill as ‘Council Tax Discretionary Relief’.
If you still have a balance to pay your instalments are recalculated to include the grant. If you have already made payments and you have a credit on your account we will refund this to you.
Council Tax Hardship Grant leaflet
About our Policy
This scheme is designed to assist with any longer term impacts from the pandemic on working age people’s income and earnings which may now been exacerbated by the impact of rising energy costs. 5,400 working age people currently claim CTS, of which 2,400 receive less than 100% support and contribute towards their council tax bill. This includes people who are not in a protected group, so are subject to the 84% maximum award, as well as those in a protected group who do not receive 100% CTS for other reasons, such as earnings.
Over 90% of working age households receiving CTS live in properties in council tax bands A or B. The borough council’s share of the annual council tax bill, excluding the levy for the Internal Drainage Boards, is only £54.78 for a band A property, and £63.91 for a band B property – just 4% of the overall bill. A hardship award of £75 means we are able to fully cover the cost of providing our local services to our residents in the lowest bands, and also contribute towards charges for the county, police and parish shares of the bill.
Our full Council Tax Hardship Grant Policy is below: