SUPPORT for Somerset residents struggling to pay their council tax bills could be cut from April 2025 to save more than £6m.

Somerset Council currently operates a council tax reduction scheme, providing discounts for single people, couples and families.

The council currently spends around £29m on these discounts, of which nearly £16m funds discounts to people of working age.

In light of its ongoing financial pressures, the council has launched a consultation on making changes to the scheme, which would save more than £6m a year by reducing the amount of discount available.

The council’s executive committee met in Taunton on July 15 to discuss the proposals before the consultation was formally launched.

A total of 32,241 council tax payers currently receive some form of council tax reduction.

Four separate proposals are being consulted upon, which could save the council a combined £6.4m per year:

  1. Reducing support for working age applicants (£4.8m): this form of relief is based on your weekly income. If these proposals are approved, all working age applicants will end up paying more council tax than they currently do. For instance, a single person earning £100 a week would get a 75 per cent discount, rather than 100 per cent, while a couple with two children earning £500 a week would see their discount cut from 25 per cent to ten per cent
  2. Introducing a standard non-dependant deduction (£1.5m): the council wishes to introduce a flat rate deduction of £10 per week for every non-dependant living with the ratepayer (such as a son or daughter aged 18 or over).
  3. Restricting support to Band D Council Tax levels (£86,000): the council currently provides relief on all eight bands of property, with Band A being the lowest and Band H being the highest. Under these proposals, relief would only be available to those living in Bands A to D – meaning people living in larger or more expensive houses would pay more council tax
  4. Restricting the back dating of council tax reduction (TBC): currently, if you apply for a council tax reduction, the council can backdate the award by up to 12 months depending on people’s individual circumstances. Under this proposal, any backdating would be fixed at one month

A further two changes were originally included within the executive papers – namely removing the disregard of £25 per week from earning calculations.

However, these were removed due to concernsthey would hit the most vulnerable too hard.

Councillor Theo Butt Philip, portfolio holder for transformation and human resources, said: “Council tax is a fundamentally unfair and unstable way of funding local government.

“Within the options before us today, there are certain things which I am, to put it mildly, deeply uncomfortable about – in particular, the proposal to remove the disregards for disabled people and carers.”

To take part in the consultation, visit www.somersetcouncil.citizenspace.com/comms/ctr before October 1. 

Any agreed changes to council tax support will come into effect on April 1, 2025, once the council has agreed its annual budget.