§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are her plans for the implementation of the council tax benefit changes for people in properties in bands F, G and H from April 1998. [37186]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyWe gave a firm commitment to work in partnership with Local Government to monitor the implementation of the changes to Council Tax Benefit to be introduced from 1 April. During consultation with Local Government representatives we listened carefully to their concerns. In light of this we have decided that as an integral part of implementation existing Council Tax Benefit recipients should be protected so that there are no losers at the point of change.
Our proposals are that existing recipients of Council Tax Benefit will not be affected by the restriction and will continue to be unaffected as long as they remain in the same property and do not have a break in Council Tax Benefit entitlement of more than twelve weeks.
The proposals mean that some 65,000 recipients would not be subject to a reduction in benefit at the point of change.
We are consulting the Local Authority Associations urgently on proposals to achieve this. We plan to lay regulations very shortly.