Council seeks to slash tax support for low-income people – again

Slough Borough is proposing to cut the amount of council tax support offered to its low-income residents – in a bid to save the council money.

The Council Tax Support scheme (CTS) is run by councils to help people on a low income pay their council tax bill.

In simple terms, if someone is on a low income, claiming certain benefits, or out of work, they may get a discount on their council tax.

The amount depends on income, savings, household size, and other factors.

Currently, the maximum level of council tax discount is 80 per cent for working age households not in employment.

Discounts of up to 50 per cent are available for working people, depending on earnings.

CTS has already been cut once in Slough; it used to offer up to 100 per cent reduction in council tax. This came down to 80 per cent in April.

Now Slough council proposes to cut this further beginning 2026/27, with a view to saving more money during times of financial difficulty for the council.

• For people who are not working, the maximum support would drop from 80 per cent to 70 per cent of their council tax bill.

• For people who are working, their discount would be cut by 20 percentage points; eg if someone currently gets 50 per cent off their bill, their discount would fall to 30 per cent.

• There would be no changes for pensioners.

These cuts would mean Slough council would spend about £872,200 less than it does now.

The current scheme costs it more than £10.44million. Of this, more than £6.4million of it goes to working age adults, across about 6,470 households.

Slough council is also considering how to continue to use its Council Tax Support Hardship Fund (CTSH) in 2026/27 to support those in financial hardship.

During the first six months of this year’s scheme, 80 households have been awarded payments from the hardship fund.

Plans will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Monday, October 20 – and members will be asked to approve the draft scheme.

Councillor Puja Bedi, lead member for finance, said: “Changes to the scheme last year kept us more in line with what is offered in other Berkshire authorities.

“Given our council’s ongoing financial challenges, we need to look at long-term sustainability and make difficult decisions on where we could make savings in services across the council.”

If cabinet approves the changes, a public consultation will run for eight weeks, from October 27 to December 21.

This will involve talking to community groups, public events, a letter to impacted working age CTS claimants and a questionnaire.

“We want to hear residents’ views on the potential impacts and what could be done to address these,” Cllr Bedi said.

“It’s never an easy thing to consider, but we will listen to feedback from the consultation before deciding on the final scheme.”

Once complete, results will be ‘carefully considered’ and a report will come back to cabinet in January.

This will then go to full council for a vote, and the agreed scheme will be in motion by March.