The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2013 (“the Prescribed Requirements Regulations”) and the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Default Scheme) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (“the Default Scheme Regulations”) made under section 13A(4) and (5) of, and Schedule 1B to, the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

The Prescribed Requirements Regulations require each billing authority in Wales to make a scheme specifying the reductions which are to apply to amounts of council tax payable by persons, or classes of persons, whom the authority considers are in financial need. The Prescribed Requirements Regulations also set out the matters that must be included within such a scheme.

The Default Scheme Regulations set out a scheme that will take effect, in respect of dwellings situated in the area of a billing authority, if the authority fails to make its own scheme.

These Regulations amend both the Prescribed Requirements Regulations and the Default Scheme Regulations.

The revised definition inserted by regulations 3(a) and 15(a) relates to changes made by Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (“the 2012 Act”). Under the 2012 Act, the income related employment and support allowance no longer consists of separate contributory and income related allowances, but only of a contributory allowance to be known simply as the “employment and support allowance”. The amended definition includes both the employment support allowance provided for under the Welfare Reform Act 2007 and new allowance provided for by the 2012 Act. The amendments made by regulations 7(e)(i), 9, 10(d) and (e)(i), 11(e), (h) and (i), 12 and 13 update the Prescribed Requirements Regulations to include references to the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2013. Regulations 24, 25(a), 26, 28(e) and (h), 29 and 30 amend the Default Scheme Regulations for the same purpose.

The amendments to the Prescribed Requirements Regulations made by regulations 3(b), 4, 7(b), (c), (d), (e)(ii) and (iii), 10(b), (c), (e)(ii) and (iii) are made in consequence of Part 7 of the Children and Families Act 2014. That Act makes provision for new entitlements to shared parental leave and shared parental pay in place of additional paternity leave and additional paternity pay. Regulations 15(b) and (c), 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25(b) and (c) make the same amendments to the Default Scheme Regulations.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 18 of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations. Under regulation 18, before revising a scheme, billing authorities are required to publish the draft scheme and consult any persons they consider are likely to have an interest in the operation of the scheme. The amendment removes the requirement to publish a draft scheme and consult interested persons where a billing authority revises a scheme in consequence of amendments made to the Prescribed Requirements Regulations.

Regulation 6 amends regulation 28 of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations which prescribes persons not from Great Britain as a class of person who must not be included in nor entitled to a reduction under an authority’s scheme. The amendment prescribes that a person who is in receipt of an income-based job-seeker’s allowance and whose only right to reside falls within the categories specified in regulation 28(4) of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations is a person to be treated as not from Great Britain. Regulation 17 makes a corresponding amendment to paragraph 19 of the Default Scheme Regulations. The amendments in regulations 6 and 17 are subject to the transitional provision made in regulation 31.

The amendments to the Prescribed Requirements Regulations made by regulations 7(a)(i) to (v), 8, 10(a)(i) to (v), and 11(a) to (d), (f) and (g) increase certain of the figures that are used in calculating whether a person is entitled to a reduction and the amount of that reduction. The up-rated figures relate to non-dependant deductions (adjustments made to the maximum amount of reduction a person can receive to take account of adults living in the dwelling who are not dependants of the applicant); and the applicable amount in relation to an application for a reduction (the amount against which an applicant’s income is compared in order to determine the amount of reduction to which the applicant is entitled). The same amendments are made in relation to the Default Scheme Regulations by regulations 18(a) to (e), 27 and 28(a) to (d), (f) and (g).

The amendments in regulations 7(a)(vi) and (vii), and 10(a)(vi) and (vii) insert references to universal credit into the Prescribed Requirements Regulations where there are already references to other income-related benefits. Regulations 18(f) and (g) insert those references into the Default Scheme Regulations.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Local Government Finance and Public Services Performance Division, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.