Council Tax Support Scheme 2025-26 consultation
Council Tax Support (CTS) is a benefit that helps people to pay their Council Tax bill. By law, we must review each year how much we spend on CTS.
We are considering changing the amount of CTS some people get towards their bill. We want your views on the proposed changes and any impact they would have on your household.
We want to make sure the scheme continues to be viable and affordable in future.
We are proposing some new criteria for awarding CTS and want to understand how these would affect different people. If we made these changes in their entirety, the council would save £1.739 million in 2025/6.
Why are we doing this
We have seen a large increase in the amount of money we spend on this support. If we don't implement the changes, we predict:
- next year, we will spend more than £12 million on CTS and
- this amount will continue to grow.
We want to make sure CTS continues to be available to support our most vulnerable residents now and in the future.
If these changes are implemented, we're proposing to provide a fund offering one-off support for those most affected.
Reductions to CTS are being looked at together with other ways the council can save money.
Who will be affected by these changes
If you are of working age and are currently in receipt of CTS, that level of support will reduce under these proposals.
What are the proposed changes
The proposed Council Tax Support scheme for 2025-26 reduces all the current percentage reductions in Council Tax (CT) across all the Income Bands.
The table gives the current and proposed Income Bands:
| Income Bands | Current Discount off CT liability | Proposed Discount off CT liability | Earnings threshold (weekly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100.00% | 70.00% | Not working |
| 1 | 75.00% | 50.00% | Earnings <£115.38 |
| 2 | 60.00% | 40.00% | £115.39 - £184.61 |
| 3 | 40.00% | 30.00% | £184.62 - £253.84 |
| 4 | 30.00% | 20.00% | £253.85-£323.07 |
| 5 | 20.00% | 10.00% | £323.08-£392.30 |
| 6 | 10.00% | 5.00% | £392.31-£461.53 |
| 7 | 0.00% | 0.00% | £461.54 and above |
We are also proposing:
- where a customer has made a claim for Universal Credit and we are notified by the DWP, CTS can be awarded without the need for a separate application being completed, and
- to extend backdating CTS payments from one month to three months if a resident can give a good reason for failing to apply sooner. And in exceptional circumstances CTS payments can be backdated to the beginning of the financial year.
How to get involved with the consultation
The consultation is open from 18 November until 29 December 2024.
- The Consultation Portal has details about the Council Tax Support consultation, you can complete the online survey or a Word version of the consultation form is at the end of the page, which you can complete and email to cts.consultation@slough.gov.uk. Your views are important.
- You can also email cts.consultation@slough.gov.uk directly - this email is for the consultation only. However, we recommend you fill in the survey.
- Attend one of our drop-in sessions at The Curve, Britwell Hub, Chalvey Hub, Langley Hub or Cippenham hub. Dates to be announced.
What happens after the consultation has finished
No decision has been made to make these changes – the results of this consultation will show us how different people would be affected. We'll look very carefully at these results before making any decision.
Once the consultation period has ended, the feedback will be collated, and a public report presented at a meeting of the council’s Cabinet in January 2025 for them to make a recommendation to full Council. If changes to the scheme are approved by Council, the new scheme will then go live from April 2025.