About 18,000 of Bristol’s poorest households could be forced to sacrifice some of their benefits to pay towards council tax for the first time in years because of the local authority’s funding crisis. Bristol City Council is proposing to cut £3million from its council tax reduction scheme (CTRS) as part of a range of cost-cutting measures to meet a huge financial shortfall.
It means the 18,000 families who currently pay nothing could be asked to contribute 10 or 20 per cent from April 2024 under plans put forward reluctantly by the Labour administration, a council meeting heard. A further 5,000 working-age adults claim a discount, based on income and benefit allowances.
About 13,000 pensioners in the city receive support to reduce or cover their bills, which is not under threat because of government policy, although this has to be paid for out of council coffers, amounting to £13million this year out of the scheme’s £42million total costs. Bristol is the only major city to have kept the full reduction in place, but the authority is proposing £45.7million of cuts to services in its annual budget, which will be set in February, as it faces a funding gap of between £37.5million and £87.6million from 2023/24 to 2027/28.
