The Executive Member for Corporate Resources explained that the Committee were being given the opportunity to receive the report earlier than in previous years in order to include their input to the final report to the Executive.

The Head of Revenues and Benefits delivered a report on the Council Tax Support Scheme which broadly reflected the previous Council Tax Benefit scheme with some minor changes. The proposed scheme would remain identical to the 2015/16 scheme and would not be subject to any inflationary increase.

In light of the report the Committee discussed the following points in detail:-

·           The number of residents in receipt of the Single Person Discount (SPD), which was confirmed to be around one third of Central Bedfordshire residents.

·           It was noted that regular entitlement checks with regards to SPD were undertaken and that most recently over 1000 people had been removed from entitlement.

·        The Council Tax collection rate within Central Bedfordshire which was higher than many other Local Authorities at 97.8%.

RECOMMENDED that the Council Tax Support Scheme be approved.