Maidstone Borough Council 11 Council Tax
Our compliance team have carried out a review of Council Tax payers who were claiming the 25% single person discount. Council Tax bills are based on the assumption that two adults occupy the property as their main home. If it's occupied by only one resident, the bill is reduced by a single person's discount of 25%.
As a result, 945 single person discounts have been cancelled which will generate additional income of over £250k per annum. In the majority of cases the taxpayers forgot to advise us that another person had moved into
their property or didn’t return their completed form confirming they were entitled to the discount. We only keep 15% of the extra £250k income generated. This equates to £37.5k, with the majority of the Council Tax collected being passed to Kent County Council and the remainder to Kent Police and Kent Fire & Rescue.
We also carried out a review of businesses that were claiming the Small Business Rate Relief. This relief is applicable if a business only uses one property and the property’s rateable value is less than £12,000.
Council Tax Review
Changes to Maidstone Borough Council’s Council Tax Reduction scheme will come into effect from April of this year following a consultation with residents.
Over 1400 people responded to a survey looking at different options relating to the amount of financial help provided to those living in the borough on low incomes. The changes also relate to the way central Government has made welfare changes and the level of discount is based on the income of the household. Currently the maximum discount is 87% for working age households and up to 100% for pensioners.
The consultation ran for a period of eight weeks between 1 July and 24 August 2016 and a decision on the changes was made at full council on 7th December with the following changes agreed:
Reducing the maximum level of support for working age applicants from 87% to 80%
Removing the Family Premium for all new working age applicants
Reducing the period for which a person can be absent from Great Britain and still receive Council Tax Reduction to four weeks
Removing the work related activity component in the calculation of Council Tax Reduction
Limiting the number of dependent children within the calculation for Council Tax Reduction to a maximum of two
Introducing a scheme, in addition to Council Tax Reduction, to help applicants suffering exceptional hardship
Residents with questions regarding how the changes might affect them can email
benefits@maidstone.gov.uk
This review resulted in 204 cancellations of relief amounting to £397k.
MBC is completing more regular cross checks with the other Kent authorities. This sharing of information means that if someone is claiming a Council Tax discount elsewhere as well as in the Maidstone Borough, it will be picked up. In the interests of all tax/ratepayers MBC remain committed to pursuing individuals and companies claiming discounts that they not entitled to and recovering the monies in full.
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