Proposed changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme

Several district Councils in Devon recently consulted on changes to their Council Tax Reduction Schemes. One of the proposed changes is to introduce a Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for the self-employed in order to align with universal credit. This means that self-employed people will be expected to earn 35 hours x National Living Wage and if they do not, they will be treated as earning that amount when calculating their council tax reduction. The LITRG have stated that the introduction of a MIF would not be welcome for the self-employed, but if it is then there ought to be exceptions in order to recognise claimants who may not be able to work 35 hours due to their circumstances as well as some changes to the calculation of the MIF to take account of tax, National Insurance and pension contributions.