Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, 2014-15

Background notes

Data Sources

All tables in this report, with the exception of Table 2, have been sourced from the Scottish Government CTR data extract. Since the CTR scheme was introduced on 1 April 2013, the Scottish Government have asked all local authorities (LAs) to provide individual record level extracts on a monthly basis to enable monitoring of the caseload and weekly awards through the CTR scheme. Their continued co-operation is gratefully acknowledged.

There are two types of records contained in the CTR extract which might feed into caseload statistics. ‘D’ records are ‘live’ cases extracted on a specified date, which is called the count date, although LAs can provide data up to a week after that count date. ‘C’ records are cases that have been ‘closed’ since the previous count date. The CTR data count dates for April 2014 to March 2015 for all LAs are shown below.

Month	Count Date	Month	Count Date
April 2014	10/04/2014	October 2014	09/10/2014
May 2014	15/05/2014	November 2014	06/11/2014
June 2014	12/06/2014	December 2014	04/12/2014
July 2014	10/07/2014	January 2015	15/01/2015
August 2014	07/08/2014	February 2015	12/02/2015
September 2014	11/09/2014	March 2015	12/03/2015

Using ‘C’ records will identify short term claims that were live on the count date but not on the extraction date either side of this date. ‘C’ Records will also be used to check that ‘D’ records had not in fact finished before the count date.

'C' records do not contain information on total weekly award amount. To enable total weekly award figures to be estimated, it has been assumed that the weekly award for ‘C’ records was the same as the average weekly award for each local authority and benefit type, based on the ‘D’ records for the given month.

For information on total CTR income foregone across the year (as in Table 2 of this publication), the Scottish Government’s Council Tax and Community Charge Receipts Return (CTRR) and Local Financial Returns (LFRs) have been used. These are aggregate returns which collect data from LAs on the total amounts of Council Tax billed, including the amounts of CTR applied. CTRR is submitted after the end of the financial year but before annual audit is completed, and is therefore provisional. LFRs are returned after the annual audit is completed These financial returns are approved by LA Directors of Finance and follow accountancy standards where applicable.

CTRR and LFRs give better overall estimates of total reductions in liabilities than the monthly extracts, which are snapshots and will include CTR application records that are subsequently revised by LAs. CTRR and LFRs represent the billing and award position for the year as a whole.

As part of the quality assurance procedure, the Scottish Government carries out validation checks on the incoming data to identify possible errors. Potential problems are identified in a number of ways, including comparing the data received to: other known sources; data from previous months and years; and data from other local authorities. Where appropriate, views are also sought from policy colleagues – for example where a change in the data may be attributable to a policy change. To ensure the data are of a high quality, the Scottish Government then works with the relevant local authorities to resolve any data issues identified.

Revisions

Any revisions and correction to this publication and previous editions of it are carried out in line with the Scottish Government’s corrections and revisions policy:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About/compliance

Further information

Interactive charts and tables, all previous publications, and a list of forthcoming publications can be found at the Council Tax Reduction statistics website:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/CTR

A full methodology guide can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology

More information on Local Government Finance statistics at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance

An Official Statistics publication for Scotland

Official and National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Both undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs and are produced free from any political interference.

Correspondence and enquiries
For enquiries about this publication please contact:
Esther Laird
Local Governance & Reform Analytical Division,
Telephone: (0131) 244 7192
e-mail: esther.laird@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:
Office of the Chief Statistician, Telephone: 0131 244 0442,
e-mail: statistics.enquiries@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this statistical bulletin :

☐ are available in more detail through Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics

☐ are available via an alternative route

☒ may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact esther.laird@scotland.gsi.gov.uk for further information.

☐ cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller.

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