Council Tax reduction in Scotland: 2018-2019

Council Tax reduction (CTR) awarded by age, household structure, income sources and employment status, the deprivation index, and Council Tax band in the financial year from April 2018 till March 2019.


Changes in Council Tax and CTR changes since 1st April 2017.

Three changes came into effect on 1st April 2017:

  • The Council Tax (CT) freeze in place between 2008-09 and 2016-17 ended and the 2017-18 and 2018-19 Local Government Finance settlements included an agreement between the Scottish Government and local government for locally determined Council Tax increases to be capped at 3%. (See Chart 1 below)
  • The child element in the calculation of the Applicable Amount (see Figure 2) was increased from £66.90 per week to £83.63 per child.
  • CTR recipients in receipt of below median income in CT Bands E to H were eligible to receive CTR to the value of the increase in CT due to the increase in multipliers to be paid by these dwellings relative to the Band D CT rate.

The figures reported in this publication should be viewed in the light of these changes. Chart 1 below shows the effects on CTR of:

  • The end of the CT freeze which can be seen with the increase of CTR income forgone in April 2017 and April 2018;
  • The introduction of Universal Credit (UC) the effects of which are described in Chart 9 in section 3.1.

Chart 1: CTR recipients and Income Forgone in Scotland, April 2013 to March 2019

Chart 1: CTR recipients and Income Forgone in Scotland, April 2013 to March 2019

Contact

Email: Robin.Bennie@gov.scot

Back to top