People in Rochdale are bracing themselves for a near 4pc hike in council tax at the same time as gas and electricity bills are also set to soar.
Borough leaders are set to sign off the 3.62pc council tax increase later this week, while households can expect to pay an additional £693 on their annual energy bills after Ofgem raised the price cap to 54pc.
Both increases will come into force from April as making ends meet looks to become even tougher in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
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There are schemes from both the council and government intended to take the sting out of rising costs - particularly for the hardest up.
However these were the source of some confusion as councillors ran the rule over Rochdale’s budget proposals during a recent scrutiny meeting.
The below sets out the various ways Rochdalians could be helped out financially over the coming 12 months.
Council Tax Reduction Scheme
Thousands of households in the borough of Rochdale are set to benefit from a council tax cut of up to £150 from April.
The reduction will be automatically applied to about 14,700 homes where bill payers are of working age and currently qualify for council tax support.
It will also be given to anyone of working age who becomes eligible for council Tax support at any time during 2022/23.
Any bills that are less than £150 will be automatically set to zero, meaning there will be nothing to pay throughout the year.
This £3m scheme is largely funded by one-off monies, as well as a surplus from the collection fund.
Council leader Neil Emmott said councillors were aware they had a responsibility ‘to help those that are most in need’ during difficult times.
“This discount will make a huge difference to people whose bills are already discounted because of their personal circumstances and I am proud that we are providing this additional support,” he said.
However, this is not to be confused with…
Council Tax Energy Scheme
Despite the name this is a government scheme targeted at energy bills, not council tax.
Households in council tax bands A-D will receive a £150 rebate from April - although to add further confusion, this will be administered by the local authorities.
This one-off payment will benefit around 80 per cent of all homes in England and, the government claims, is £1 billion more generous and more targeted towards lower-income families than a VAT cut on energy bills.
This does not have to be repaid.
However, that is not the case for another similar government scheme.
The Energy Bills Rebate will provide around 28 million households with an upfront discount on their bills worth £200. Energy suppliers will apply the discount to domestic electricity customers from October, with the Government meeting the costs.
But that discount will then be automatically recovered from people’s bills in equal £40 instalments over the next five years.
Hardship fund
Like the council tax reduction scheme, this £400k pot is funded from one-off monies will be used to support the borough’s most vulnerable residents.
Chief finance officer Julie Murphy explained why this was being used to help the hardest up, rather than an across-the-board freeze.
"It wouldn’t be right to use one-off funding for recurrent issue, it would be using one-off funding to bridge a gap in the council tax," she told a meeting of the council's corporate overview and scrutiny committee.
“What we would be doing was pushing that problem into future years, that would mean our budget gap would increase by £3m and we would find ourselves in a position looking to reduce our services by £3m to bridge a gap that we had created.”
Rochdale council corporate overview and scrutiny committe met on February 17.
Rochdale council cabinet will meet on Tuesday (February 22) to recommend the budget proposals.
This will then go before a meeting of the full council on Wednesday night (February 23) for final approval.
