Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation

We wanted to hear your views on proposed changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which exists to support the lowest income households by reducing the amount of Council Tax they must pay. Further details can be found in the overview section at the bottom of this page. 

The consultation ran from 17 December 2025 to 2 February 2026.

• 518 responses were received to the consultation.  

• Of the 365 respondents that chose to say where they lived, 357 (97.8%) were Buckinghamshire residents. 

• Of the 363 respondents that chose to say, 115 (31.7%) were currently in receipt of Council Tax reduction. 

The headline survey results were as follows. Please note that some percentages do not add up exactly to 100 due to rounding. 

Do you agree with the proposal to introduce an income banded scheme for all working age applicants? 

• Yes – 214 (41.2%) 

• No – 224 (43.3%) 

• Don’t know – 79 (15.3%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to create a standard Non Dependant Deduction of £5 per week? 

• Yes – 237 (49.0%) 

• No – 131 (27.1%) 

• Don’t know – 116 (24.0%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to disregard certain elements of Universal Credit? 

• Yes – 254 (55.6%) 

• No – 139 (30.4%) 

• Don’t know – 65 (14%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to replace the current earnings disregards with a standard £25 per week? 

• Yes – 224 (51.4%) 

• No – 124 (28.4%) 

• Don’t know – 88 (20.2%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to continue to protect families by disregarding Child Benefit and Child Maintenance? 

• Yes – 265 (62.1%) 

• No – 120 (28.1%) 

• Don’t know – 42 (9.8%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to continue to disregard Personal Independence Payments, Armed Forces Independence Payments and Disability Living Allowance and providing a disregard of £50 where the applicant, partner or dependant is in receipt of one of those benefits? 

• Yes – 261 (63.2%) 

• No – 87 (21.1%) 

• Don’t know – 65 (15.7%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to introduce a new disregard for the support component of Employment and Support Allowance and Carer's Allowance? 

• Yes – 275 (68.3%) 

• No – 72 (17.9%) 

• Don’t know (13.9%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to protect War Pensioners by continuing to disregard War Pensions or War Disablement pensions in full? 

• Yes – 319 (80.0%) 

• No – 49 (12.3%) 

• Don’t know – 31 (7.8%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to reduce the capital limit to £6,000? 

• Yes – 171 (42.9%) 

• No – 196 (49.1%) 

• Don’t know – (8.0%) 

Do you agree with the proposal to remove the Extended Payment provision? 

• Yes – 236 (60.1%) 

• No – 88 (22.4%) 

• Don’t know – 69 (17.6%) 

Do you agree that Transitional Relief should only apply to households receiving CTR on the scheme change date? 

• Yes – 194 (50.8%) 

• No – 96 (25.1%) 

• Not sure – 92 (24.1%) 

Do you agree that households losing £10 or less per week should not receive Transitional Relief? 

• Yes – 166 (44.2%) 

• No – 121 (32.2%) 

• Not sure – 89 (23.7%) 

Do you agree with the way Transitional Relief is calculated (tiered approach and cap)? 

• Yes – 148 (39.0%) 

• No – 113 (29.8%) 

• Not sure – 119 (31.3%) 

You can find an in-depth report on the survey responses in the document Council Tax Reduction Scheme Proposals for 2026/27  

As the consultation responses expressed a broad level of support for the proposals, it was decided that the proposed level of funding would deliver a fair balance between maintaining support for lower income households and providing income to deliver wider Council services. 

The new Council Tax Reduction Scheme was adopted as part of setting the overall budget for 2026/27 at a full meeting of Buckinghamshire Council on 25 February 2026.