A PROPOSAL to redesign council tax reductions has been tabled.

Brighton and Hove City Council are consulting on a proposal to change the way financial support works to help low-income households with council tax.

Council tax reduction (CTR) helps low-income households with their council tax. Residents who pay council tax are eligible for support if their income and savings are below a certain level.

At the moment, CTR is calculated depending on who is living in your household, income and savings. The more income you have, the lower your CTR is.

In the new scheme for Universal Credit claimants, council would solely be looking at net earnings.

This means the amount of reduction claimants get will depend on how much they earn from working. Their other income, such as Universal Credit, other benefits or pensions, will be ignored.

Those not working or on the lowest earnings will continue to have an 82 per cent reduction to their council tax, while people in higher earnings brackets will pay more.

Council is required to review their CTR scheme every year and are now consulting on the proposed changes for 2022/23.

There are currently around 12,300 working age households in the city claiming CTR.

Council says the aim is to make the scheme easier to understand and fit better alongside Universal Credit claims.

Joint deputy chair of the policy and resources committee councillor David Gibson said one of council’s key priorities is to address inequality, poverty and financial inclusion in the city.

“We’re keen to do as much as we can to increase the financial support available to residents through the council tax reduction scheme,” he said.

“Last year we made the scheme more generous for those on the lowest incomes. This improvement will be sustained this year.

“We are consulting about additional changes to spend less money on administration by making the scheme simpler and clearer, as well as expanding its scope to include people earning up to £250 a week”

Cllr Gibson said as more people move on to Universal Credit, the current scheme is proving “burdensome to manage and confusing for people”.

“We’re keen to cut down the unnecessary administration and make sure we can use the ever-reducing funding we receive to financially support those who need it most,” he said.

“Since the government scrapped council tax benefit in 2013 and placed the cost of supporting people with council tax bills on to councils, we have to strike a balance between the cost of the scheme with the council’s ever increasing budget pressures.”

The consultation is open until October 18.

Feedback from the consultation will be used to draw up the final proposals for a report to the full council in December 2021.

If agreed, the new scheme for people claiming Universal Credit would be introduced from April 1 2022.