Explanatory note

These Regulations make amendments to the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (“the 2012 Regulations”) and the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the 2021 Regulations”). Regulation 2 amends the 2012 Regulations and regulation 3 amends the 2021 Regulations.

Regulation 2(2) amends the 2012 Regulations to uprate the amount of the family premium added to establish the income a person is deemed to need to live on for the purposes of calculating their entitlement to council tax reduction.

Regulations 2(3) and (6) and 3(3)(a) make amendments to broaden the scope under the 2012 and 2021 Regulations of the disregard for payments made by way of compensation for historical child abuse in institutions in the UK. This will no longer be confined to payments made under the scheme established by the Redress for Survivors (Historical Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021. This covers disregard from treatment as income, including income of adults living with council tax reduction applicants, but who are not their dependants, as well as disregard from capital under the 2021 Regulations. In relation to the 2012 Regulations, regulation 2(5) broadens the scope of the existing capital disregard so that it applies to payments made to persons other than those who have suffered abuse, such as next of kin or nominated beneficiaries of victims, rather than being confined to payments to victims themselves. The existing disregard from capital of payments in respect of historical institutional child abuse in the UK is made in reliance on the general disregard in the 2012 Regulations of payments made by way of compensation for personal injury, limiting it to payments made directly to victims.

In relation to the 2012 Regulations and the 2021 Regulations respectively, regulations 2(4) and 3(2) provide for the omission of reference to widowed mother’s allowance, which is no longer payable. Regulations 2(5) and 3(3)(b) and (c) provide for disregard from capital of any payment made to a person under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme established by the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023, as compensation for having spent time in a mother and baby institution.