Council tax has become ‘more regressive’ as a result of the localisation of support, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
A LGA report on council tax support published yesterday also warned that further cuts in funding would lead to the poorest paying an increased slice of their income in council tax in a ‘sizeable number’ of areas.
The same report claimed that the cut in central support for council tax benefit to April 2016 could be as much as £1bn.
Government ministers and officials had presented the localisation of council tax benefit as being accompanied by a 10% cut, equivalent to £410m, but the LGA believes the amount could be more than double that because of the way in which funding was transferred.
The report read: ‘The fact that funding for a demand-led service, over which councils have little if any control, has been rolled into an ever-reducing settlement funding assessment, means that councils are forced to make cuts, either to entitlement to support, or to other services.
‘Different councils are affected in different ways, notably due to different numbers of eligible council tax payers and pensioners.’
