Next year's minimum council tax pay set for Scarborough Borough

The authority's agreed the recommended amount which is set by the government for years 2022/23

Author: Karen LiuPublished 2nd Nov 2021

The minimum council tax residents in Scarborough Borough will have to pay next year has been set.

The Council has voted in favour of 12.5% of the total bill, which is in line with government figures.

That means the rest will be calculated on people's ability to pay.

Janet Jefferson, Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources, said:

"Pension age customers are fully protected. We also give consideration to people that are very vulnerable and have hardship in even paying the 12.5% and they are covered under an exceptional hardship payment policy, then of course they would have to apply for that.

"People can claim at any time during the year and it's backdated. It's a new scheme and it's to help the vulnerable and low paid workers and obviously through Covid, we've had an increase number of people who've needed this help and I can imagine people are not always aware of it.

"Where you've got people that are in a difficult situation, even worse than others, then they can go to the hardship payment policy and yes, they may not pay anything. It depends on each individual circumstance.

"Everybody's financial situation is worse off due to Covid but this is a help to people that are on low income, and probably a lot of people will not be aware of the fact that they can get help, even to the extent of a reduction to the 12.5% that's mandatory."

You can read the report here.

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Hits Radio app.