Question
Exempting care leavers from council tax up to the age of 25 was raised at a meeting of the Corporate Parenting Board as far back as October 2019. Why hasn’t this exemption been introduced yet?
Minutes:
Question:
Exempting care leavers from council tax up to the age of 25 was raised at a meeting of the Corporate Parenting Board as far back as October 2019. Why hasn’t this exemption been introduced yet?
Answer:
You heard my reply tonight. It is in the Medium Term budget so it will be done.
I will give you a little bit of a background though. In 2019 it was something that I would have liked to have done at that point. We were facing a £2million overspend in Children’s Services that we had to fund, and we had to fund from reserves. I did not believe at that time that it was prudent for us to do that. This year Children’s Services have got themselves in a lot better shape, and this year they have come in with a very, very good performance on budget, so I believe that now is the time to introduce it. Like all these things, poverty and vulnerable people, they do need support. I will do everything I possibly can to support these people, but I will not put the financial aspects of the Council at risk.
Supplementary Question:
Thank you for your answer. I am a bit non plussed by it. I know that Councillor Clark, who is the Lead Member for Children’s Services was at that meeting of 2019 of Corporate Parenting Board, as were other members of the Executive. I appreciate that there were problems with the Children’s Services finances, obviously I understand that, but I also know that the amounts involved to make this change are immaterial for the Council. I do not understand why there has been a delay of almost 18 months in introducing that change. The Council has been legally responsible for these care leavers since 2018 and obviously the last 10 months or so they will have faced even more challenges. Do not forget that it is too late for some of those care leavers now. How can that long delay possibly be justified when the amounts for the Council are not material, and it is vulnerable people’s lives we are talking about?
Supplementary Answer:
You may be interested to know Rachel that all the immaterial costs for the Council all add up and become material. You have to make a decision based on the facts at the time. My decision at that time, I wanted to do it, I was not prepared to extend the situation that we had in Children’s Services at that point. I now find myself, because of prudent management of the finances, that we can do it, and I would have hoped to have done more had it not have been for Covid, but we are going to take another hit on Covid this year, another hit on the reserves. It is a shame because as far as I am concerned poverty is not a political issue, it is a true issue and people suffer with it. I will do whatever I can, but I will not jeopardise the financial probity of the Council because if I put myself in that situation as I have said many occasions, a broke Council cannot help anybody.