From April 2013 the government is proposing to localise support for council tax from 2013–14. It will give grants to local authorities in England and to the Scottish and Welsh governments to design their own systems for providing support for council tax to low-income families. Council Tax Benefit will be abolished affecting over 5 million claimants with an overall cut in the budget of 10% or around£500 million. At this late stage the government has just announced a £100 million transition fund for the first year only which councils can use to help design their policies and maintain incentives to work. The criteria is quite strict -
- Those who would be entitled to 100% support under current council tax benefit arrangements pay between zero and no more than 8.5% of their net council tax liability;
- The taper rate does not increase above 25%;
- There is no sharp reduction in support for those entering work.