The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025

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 that 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 in 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 that authority fails to make its own scheme.

Regulation 3 inserts new definitions into the Prescribed Requirements Regulations as a consequence of other amendments made by these Regulations. Regulation 13 makes the same amendments to the Default Scheme Regulations.

Regulation 28 of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations provides that persons “treated as not being in Great Britain” are not eligible for a council tax reduction; that is, where they are not habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland. Regulation 4 of these Regulations amends regulation 28 of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations to provide for further exemptions from the habitual residence test for persons displaced by violence in Sudan, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights or Lebanon, dependent on immigration status, and for those who are given temporary leave to stay in the United Kingdom under the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse concession (which replaces the Destitution Domestic Violence concession). The same amendments are made to paragraph 19(5) of the Default Scheme Regulations by regulation 14.

The amendments made to the Prescribed Requirements Regulations by regulations 5(a) and (b), 6, 8(a) and (b) and 9 uprate certain figures used to calculate whether a person is entitled to a reduction, and if so, the amount of that reduction. The uprated figures apply to non-dependant deductions (adjustments made to the maximum amount of a reduction that a person can receive taking into account adults living in the dwelling who are not the applicant’s dependants) and the applicable amount (the amount against which an applicant’s income is compared to determine the reduction, if any, which the applicant may be entitled to receive). A number of other figures are also uprated to reflect changes to various other entitlements. The same amendments are made to the Default Scheme Regulations by regulations 15(a) and (b), 20 and 21.

Regulations 5(c), 7, 8(c) and 10 amend the provisions of the Prescribed Requirements Regulations which relate to the income or capital of an applicant for a council tax reduction which is to be disregarded in calculating that reduction. The amendments add to the list of “capital disregards” payments under the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme. The same amendments are made by regulations 15(c), 22 and 23 to the Default Scheme Regulations.

Regulations 5(d) and 8(d) amend the Prescribed Requirements Regulations to update a previous reference in relation to statutory parental bereavement pay. The same amendments are made to the Default Scheme Regulations by regulation 16.

Regulations 5(e) and (f) and 8(e) and (f) amend the Prescribed Requirements Regulations following the introduction of treating self-employed earners with profits at or above the small profits threshold as having actually paid Class 2 National Insurance contributions (“NICs”) and removal of liability to pay Class 2 NICs. The amendments remove legislative references and provisions relating to liability to pay Class 2 NICs so that the legislation continues to work as intended. The same amendments are made by regulations 17 and 18 in relation to the Default Scheme Regulations.

Regulation 11 amends the Prescribed Requirements Regulations to permit an application for a council tax reduction to be treated as made where a person has claimed universal credit and the Secretary of State has provided the administering billing authority with information about that claim. The same amendment is made to the Default Scheme Regulations by regulation 19.

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 Reform Division, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ and is published on www.gov.wales.