Somerset Council tax exemptions could be cut

Somerset Council has launched a consultation on its council tax reduction scheme

Some people on low incomes in Somerset could have to pay more council tax in future.

Somerset councillors have agreed to launch a consultation on changes to its discount scheme, although not for pensioners.

However, a proposal to reduce a specific discount offered to disabled people on low incomes was dropped by the council's Liberal Democrat executive committee.

A 10-week consultation will now take place on the proposals, which the council's chief executive said could save the authority up to £2m a year.

The council said the consultation is needed due to the "financial emergency" it is facing but that it does not take any such decisions "lightly".

It has projected a budget overspend of more than £100m for 2025/26.

Somerset Council declared a financial emergency in 2023

Somerset Council said its council tax reduction scheme supports more than 32,000 people a year at a cost of £29m.

The local authority is only able to alter the scheme for working age residents under pensionable age, and to do this it must hold a public consultation.

The consultation will look at reducing the level of council tax discount for some working age applicants including replacing the 100% discount band for those on the lowest incomes, with a 75% discount.

The report said this would mean a couple with two children and a weekly income of £500 could see their discount reduced from 25% to 10%.

The council has a projected budget overspend of more than £100m for 2025/26

The original report had proposed consulting on savings of up to £12m.

These would have included no longer disregarding income from benefits when calculating a person's qualifying income in relation to any council tax discount.

Those benefits included Personal Independence Payments (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), carer's allowance and child benefit.

But strong objections from within the leading Lib Dem executive, as well as from opposition councillors, saw this part of the proposal dropped - along with an option to remove a disregard for the first £25 a week of someone's earnings in their council tax reduction calculation.

Councillor Theo Butt Philip, lead member for transformation, said he was "deeply uncomfortable" with those proposals which he described as "something I cannot countenance" and "just wrong".

Local charity Compass Disability had also spoken out against the proposals.

David Fothergill, leader of the opposition Conservative group said: "We welcome the amendment brought forward to protect the most vulnerable in Somerset but had this report been more widely considered then the prospect of such draconian proposals may have been avoided."

Lib Dem leader of Somerset Council, Bill Revans, said: “With a 40% reduction in central government support to councils, more and more council spending is coming from council tax than was ever intended.

“Unless there is government action to fix the broken funding system, we will continue to face many challenges that will have a real impact on services and our communities.”

The meeting heard that the council will write to all discount claimants, as well as groups including Citizens' Advice to advertise the consultation.