Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, October to December 2016

Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, October to December 2016

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 October to December 2016.

Key Points

• There were 490,410 Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland in December 2016.
• The total weekly income foregone by local authorities on Council Tax Reduction in December 2016 was £6.2 million.
• The total number of Council Tax Reduction recipients in Scotland has gradually decreased by 11.2 per cent (61,970 recipients) between the beginning of the scheme in Scotland in April 2013, and December 2016.

Chart 1: CTR recipients in Scotland, April 2013 to December 2016

The number of recipients for each local authority in October, November and December 2016 is shown in Table 1. The total number of recipients in Scotland decreased from 493,470 in October 2016 to 490,410 in December 2016. The changes in number of recipients between months are similar in pattern to those seen in the same months in previous years.

Table 1: CTR Recipients by Local Authority, October to December 2016 ^{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 December 2016 in a treemap, 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 December 2016. Glasgow City accounted for the highest proportion of Scotland's CTR recipients, with 19 per cent (90,890) of the total. The other four authorities with the highest proportion of CTR recipients were North Lanarkshire, accounting for 8 per cent (37,030 recipients); Edinburgh City, accounting for 7 per cent (35,020 recipients); and Fife and South Lanarkshire, accounting for 6 per cent each (31,400 and 30,780 recipients respectively).

Figure 1: Treemap of CTR recipients by Local Authority, December 2016

The total weekly income foregone for each local authority in October, November and December 2016 is shown in Table 2. The total for Scotland was £6.2 million in December; the slight decrease in income foregone reflects the decrease in the number of recipients.

Table 2: CTR weekly estimate of income foregone (£000's) by Local Authority, October to December 2016 ^{1, 2, 3}

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.