Council tax support to remain at 100% for thousands of Lancaster and Morecambe residents

Council tax support across the Lancaster and Morecambe district will continue at its full level for the thousands of people who receive it.

Lancaster City Council’s cabinet agreed this week to continue providing the full level of council tax support for almost 7,000 low income households for the next year.

Reducing support would have brought the council potential savings of £835,000 per year.

Under Westminster Government council tax support laws, eligible pensioners are offered protection but people of working age are not. Every local authority is required to decide how much support is offered locally to households on low incomes.

At the moment, Lancaster City Council is the only district council in Lancashire which offers 100 per cent payments to working-age people on low incomes who qualify for council tax support. It is one of 36 councils nationally to do this.

However, a number of the other Lancashire authorities are re-thinking their scheme for April 2022 and may adopt the current Lancaster model of 100 per cent support.

A report for the cabinet meeting said the local council tax support scheme overall is estimated to cost £11.2m in total each year. The cost can vary over time with council tax rates, the number of claimants and council decisions.

Due to the impact of the pandemic, support costs have risen recently, albeit temporarily. The costs to support working-age households on low incomes is £7m while it costs £4.2m to help pensioners on low incomes.

Currently, 10,779 residents claim local council tax support in the district. This has reduced from a high of 12,202 in 2014. Pensioners make up 35 per cent of claimants (3,821 people).

The cabinet’s decision on Tuesday will now go to the full council for final approval.