Welsh Government makes up 10% Council Tax Benefit cut

18 Jan 13
The Welsh Government has taken £22m from reserves to allow local authorities to keep Council Tax Benefit payments at pre-cut levels in 2013/14.

By Vivienne Russell | 18 January 2013

The Welsh Government has taken £22m from reserves to allow local authorities to keep Council Tax Benefit payments at pre-cut levels in 2013/14.

Making the announcement yesterday, Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant said ‘careful financial management’ across the Welsh Government had allowed the funds to be released.

The move follows the localisation of the benefit by the UK government along with a 10% cut in funding. Councils have been given responsibility for designing their own support schemes but cannot change pensioners’ entitlements.

Sergeant said the cut in the benefit funds would mean cutting the incomes of those who could least afford it. ‘This concerned me and my Cabinet colleagues greatly,’ he said.

He added that the recent 1% cap on benefits uprating would penalise vulnerable households even more. This compounded the ‘very disturbing’ analysis of welfare cuts that had been published by organisations including the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

‘As a responsible government, we have held back an element of our reserves as a contingency for unforeseen pressures such as extreme winter weather, pandemics and other emergencies,’ Sargeant said.

‘However, as these pressures pass, and as we approach the end of the financial year, we are now able to safely utilise some of this money to provide this much needed additional support for those eligible for help with their council tax.’

Finance Minister Jane Hutt added that the Welsh Government had used the Budget process to do what it could to ameliorate the impact of welfare cuts on the poorest people in Wales.

‘Flexibility available to us at the year end means that we are able to provide additional resources and return the council tax support budget to the level it was before the UK government made its cuts,’ she said.

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