Select Committee on Communities and Local Government Committee Written Evidence


Memorandum by Portsmouth City Council (CTB 1)

    —    The case for rebranding council tax benefit as a "rebate";

  We believe that this would be a positive move, as many people feel that there is a stigma attached to the phrase "benefit".

    —    The role and effectiveness of Government in increasing council tax benefit uptake levels;

  We welcome efforts to increase uptake of CTB entitlement.

    —    The case for improvements to the processing of pension credit claims to enable the Pension Service to act as a portal to rebates for all callers, regardless of pension credit eligibility, and to examine steps to improve data sharing, and There is a clear case for maximising data sharing opportunities, and this principle needs to be extended over all benefit types. There are anomalies in the system where customers are made to jump through unnecessary hoops—for example, where claimants on Housing Benefit have to change in their circumstances which would bring them into Council Tax Benefit, but are made to make a new claim for CTB.

    —    The Case for reform of the council tax benefit eligibility criteria including the case for changing of abolishing the saving limit in council tax benefit for pensioners, and the case for aligning council tax rebate thresholds with other parts of the tax system.

  As with any major change the devil will be in the detail, so we would like to see the proposals to understand how it would impact on other benefits. We would be concerned if we had to apply different rules for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit which may confuse customers and may lead to changes not being reported.

  However, the underlying principle appears to have credibility and could remove some of the complications involved in assisting pensioners with their Council Tax.

June 2007





 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2007
Prepared 13 September 2007