Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director (Finance and Transformation) on the disregard of the War Pensions Policy.

The Council’s disregard of war pensions procedure when calculating housing benefit and council tax support was agreed by Cabinet and recommended to Full Council.

Report of the Executive Director (Finance and Transformation) on the disregard of the War Pensions Policy.

(1)        The Decision Taken

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

The Council’s disregard of war pensions procedure when calculating housing benefit and council tax support was agreed by Cabinet and recommended to Full Council.

(2)       Reasons for the Decision

The purpose of the report was to document existing working practices to ensure that members of the armed forces who have been disabled during service or the widows, widowers or surviving civil partners of those who died in the service of their country should not be penalised by having their pensions or payments made in relation to their service, taken into account in the calculation of their housing benefit or council tax support entitlement.

The Council disregards in full war widows and war disablement pensions when calculating entitlement to housing benefit.

The Council Tax Support Scheme replaced council tax benefits from April 2013 and the Council’s scheme for working age recipients and pensioners allows for the full disregard of war widow and war disablement pensions.

The cost of these disregards was minimal due to the fact the council receives 75% subsidy towards these costs, with a cost of less than £2,500 last year.

An equalities impact assessment had been undertaken, no negative impacts had been identified but potentially positive impacts have been identified as set out the equalities implications.