Committee
Welfare Reform Committee 08 March 2016
08 Mar 2016 · S4 · Welfare Reform Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016 (SSI 2016/81)
Robin Haynes (Scottish Government)
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Good morning and thank you. Myself or one of my colleagues have put in an annual appearance at the committee at a similar time since the council tax reduction scheme was introduced in 2013. The statutory instrument that has been laid and which is the subject of this morning’s discussion continues that pattern of reflecting changes made to the social security system by the UK Government. That very much reflects the policy commitment that Scottish ministers gave when council tax benefit was abolished that all individuals’ net council tax liability would remain as it would have been had council tax benefit not been abolished. Our nearest comparator has been the housing benefit scheme and changes that were made to that, because historically, entitlement to council tax benefit and to housing benefit have been subject to exactly the same criteria, so it has been used as a yardstick. In essence, the changes reflect amendment to the working-age regulations—the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Normally, the allowances within the applicable amount are uprated using the consumer prices index by the UK Government, but in the relevant period the CPI was negative, so the allowances are unchanged. The equivalent amendments to the pension-age regulations, the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) Regulations 2012, reflect the UK Government’s triple lock on all entitlement for pensioners. There are one or two other bits and pieces of legislative reference updating—for example, regulation 4 will change some references to reflect new policy schemes. I do not know how many people from Wales who are subject to the criteria will come, but there is bound to be at least one if this update is not done—hence the changes to regulation 6.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
For item 2 on our agenda, we have with us Robin Haynes, who is head of the council tax unit in the Scottish Government. We will take evidence on an instrumen...
Robin Haynes (Scottish Government)
Good morning and thank you. Myself or one of my colleagues have put in an annual appearance at the committee at a similar time since the council tax reductio...
The Convener
Lab
You mentioned that in the period concerned, CPI was negative, so there is no change. What period was that?
Robin Haynes
September.
The Convener
Lab
Do you mean the year until September?
Robin Haynes
I think so; I will have to get clarification, but my notes say that September CPI was negative: it was -0.1 per cent.
The Convener
Lab
Right. Is that still the case? For this year, therefore, any changes would be in September.
Robin Haynes
The reference period would be to September, but the scheme from week 17 onwards will be a matter for an incoming Scottish Government.
The Convener
Lab
Does that include the uprating method that is used? Could the Government decide not to apply CPI and to revert to what was used before?
Robin Haynes
A new Government could change just about anything in the scheme, if it so desired. The scheme is enabled under powers in the Local Government Finance Act 199...
The Convener
Lab
The power to determine what method of uprating to apply lies with the Scottish Government. If, for example, it was felt that CPI was inappropriate, unfair or...
Robin Haynes
Yes it could, absolutely.
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much for that. No members have questions. Item 3 is to ask whether the committee has any comments on the subordinate legislation. Are members...
The Convener
Lab
Just before we go into private session, I want to say that this is our last meeting of this parliamentary session and my last committee meeting as a convener...