Burnham-On-Sea residents will today (Friday, September 14th) be invited to have their say about Council Tax benefit changes.
Sedgemoor District Council is holding a drop-in session at The Princess Theatre between 2-5pm for visitors to raise questions and comments about the proposed Council Tax benefit changes.
More than 60 people have so far asked for help and advice during the consultation process, which began on 9th August and is due to finish on October 5th. There have also been over 1,000 responses to the council’s questionnaire.
As part of the government’s welfare reform and localism policy, it is abolishing the current national Council Tax Benefit scheme from April 2013 and is asking councils to replace it with their own locally run service called Council Tax Support.
The Government has said the change will not affect residents if they or their partners are old enough to receive pension credit, which in April 2013 will be 61 years and 6 months.
“The Government is cutting the money available for benefit by 10% nationally, which means Sedgemoor District Council will need to find savings of approximately £1 million,” a district council spokeswoman told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
“The first step in designing a new scheme is to draw up proposals and to ask people for their views. It is important that people become involved in the consultation.”
