Council tax reduction in Scotland: April to June 2018

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, April to June 2018

This publication provides statistics on the Council Tax Reduction ( CTR) scheme, which reduces the Council Tax liability of low income households in Scotland. A CTR ‘recipient’ can be a single person or a couple, with or without children, since Council Tax is charged on a per-dwelling basis, rather than to individuals.

The statistics are based on data extracts from local authorities, and cover the time period April to June 2018.

Key Points

• There were 481,850 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in June 2018.
• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in June 2018 was £6.5 million.

The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland was 12.8 per cent (70,530 recipients) lower in June 2018 than it was at the beginning of the scheme in April 2013. In general, this fall has been gradual, punctuated by small rises each January to March.

Chart 1: CTR recipients in Scotland, April 2013 to June 2018

The number of recipients for each local authority in April to June 2018 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, April to June 2018 ^{[1, 2]}

Notes:
1 Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
2 Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.

Figure 1 shows CTR recipients by local authority for June 2018 in a pareto chart using the data from Table 1. This allows a visual comparison of the number of recipients in each local authority. The five local authorities with the highest numbers of CTR recipients accounted for almost half (46 per cent) of the total for Scotland in June 2018. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland’s CTR recipients, with over 18 per cent (88,850) of the total. The other four councils with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 7.5 per cent (36,320 recipients); Edinburgh City and Fife, had 7 per cent (33,910 and 31,690 recipients respectively); and South Lanarkshire, 6 per cent each ( 30,490 recipients).

Figure 1: CTR recipients by Local Authority, June 2018.

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in April, May and June 2018 is shown in Table 2. The total for Scotland was £6.5 million in June 2018;

Notes:
1 Recipients are as at monthly count date. See Methodology Notes, Section 2 for more details. Available at
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Local-Government-Finance/Methodology/Ctaxreductionmethod
2 Weekly income foregone estimates are based on ‘number of recipients multiplied by average weekly reduction’ for each local authority and benefit type for the given month.
3 Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Components may not sum to total due to rounding.