Written by Bobby Kelly
March 8, 2023
Wales makes council tax fairer as 830 care leavers are set to benefit from a council tax exemption aimed at easing the transition for young people leaving care.
The Welsh Government introduced legislation in April 2019 to exempt care leavers from council tax.
A series of reports commissioned by the Welsh Government has been published looking at the impact of measures taken to alleviate pressure on vulnerable people in relation to council tax.
As well as the exemption for care leavers, the reports look at the standardisation of the exemption for severe mental impairment, the removal of the sanction of imprisonment for non-payment of council tax, and the implementation of the Council Tax Protocol which outlines an agreed collection and arrears management policy.
Rebecca Evans, Minister for Finance and Local Government, said: “The transition to independent living can be a challenging time in the lives of care leavers. Exempting care leavers from paying council tax is one of a range of ways in which we are working to support care leavers into adult life, and it is good to hear how helpful they have found it.
The research also tells us there is room for further improvement, for example in ensuring information about the support on offer is clearly available. We will be working closely with local authorities to make sure people are supported as well as they can be.
We remain fully committed to making council tax fairer, and we’ll be looking to improve the framework of discounts and exemptions as well as our Council Tax Reduction Scheme as part of our wider programme of work to make council tax fairer.”
The reports are avialble here:
https://www.gov.wales/understanding-impact-council-tax-interventions-wales
