HL Deb 16 November 2004 vol 666 cc147-8WA
Lord Smith of Leigh

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What plans they have to reform and simplify council tax benefit to (a) improve take up; and (b) integrate the benefit with tax credits. [HL4944]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)

As announced by the Chancellor in the 2004 Budget, the Government will introduce, from next April, a package of measures that will be a first step in an overall programme designed to simplify the rules surrounding entitlement and take-up of both housing benefit and council tax benefit, and the way in which the rules align with those for other support such as tax credits and pension credit.

While local authorities have a statutory duty to promote awareness of council tax benefit, we launched a campaign earlier this year, supported by new posters, flyers and press advertising, to help local authorities encourage those who may be entitled to claim. And we will continue to support local authorities in raising awareness of council tax benefit in the run-up to the 2005 billing round.

From this week we will also be issuing a copy of the council tax benefit flyer in with the winter fuel payment notification letters. We anticipate that around 12 million pensioners in around 8 million households will be sent a copy of the flyer during November and December, which will encourage them to "Cut your Council Tax—Find out if you should be paying less."

We have already introduced a shorter claim form for pensioners, reducing the current form by a third, and propose to introduce an even shorter form for those wishing to claim CTB only. And we are considering how we can make this shorter still. We are also looking at how we can streamline the application process even more; for example, where claims are made for a number of benefits, such as pension credit, ensuring that common information on personal and financial circumstances is only given once.

The Pension Service is also already doing much to promote council tax benefit take-up, issuing housing benefit/council tax benefit claim forms to everyone who calls the Pension Credit Application Line and wishes to claim and helping people fill in their council tax benefit claim form when visiting pensioners to take a claim for pension credit.

We are well aware of the pivotal role that the voluntary sector can play in helping to promote take-up. We know some older people prefer to deal with organisations like Age Concern and Help the Aged. As part of developing a third age network, we are building closer and more effective partnerships with the voluntary sector.