{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/council-tax-reduction-schemes-prescribed-requirements-england-amendment-regulations-2020/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/council-tax-reduction-schemes-prescribed-requirements-england-amendment-regulations-2020/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2020/23",
  "legislation_title": "The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/council-tax-reduction-schemes-prescribed-requirements-england-amendment-regulations-2020",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nSection 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) requires each billing authority in England to make a scheme specifying the reductions which are to apply to amounts of council tax payable by persons, or classes of person, whom the billing authority considers are in financial need. The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012 (“the 2012 Regulations”) prescribe matters which must be included in such a scheme in addition to those matters which must be included in such a scheme by virtue of paragraph 2 of Schedule 1A to the 1992 Act.\nRegulation 3 amends regulation 2 of the 2012 Regulations (interpretation) in order to provide for new definitions, and to amend the existing definition of “qualifying person”.\nRegulation 4 makes provision consequential on the introduction of opposite-sex civil partnerships.\nThe amendments made by regulations 5, 7(b)(i) and (c) to (e) make provision consequential on the introduction of parental bereavement leave and pay. Regulation 7(d) and (e) also replaces references to “statutory shared paternity pay” with references to “statutory shared parental pay” (as statutory shared paternity pay does not exist).\nThe amendments made by regulations 7(a)(vi) to (xiv), 11(a) and 12 provide for the way under which payments under “the Grenfell Tower charitable funds”, payments under “the Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund”, “Grenfell Tower support payments” and payments under “the Windrush Compensation Scheme” are to be taken into account when determining eligibility for a reduction and the amount of a reduction.\nThe amendments made by regulation 6 relate to the prescribed requirement that persons treated as not being in Great Britain must not be included in an authority’s scheme. A person is treated as not being in Great Britain if they are not habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland. No person shall be treated as habitually resident without a relevant right to reside in the place where they are habitually resident. However, certain categories of people are exempt from this habitual residence test. Regulation 6(a) and (d) updates references to the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 in this test with references to the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, as the latter revokes and replaces the former. Regulation 6(b) provides that certain rights to reside created for nationals of European Economic Area states in connection with the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, and for Zambrano carers, are not relevant rights to reside for the purposes of establishing habitual residence. Regulation 6(c) revokes a reference to transitional measures relating to Croatian nationals following Croatia’s accession to the EU.\nThe figures in the 2012 Regulations which are uprated by regulations 7(a)(i) to (v) and 8 to 10 relate to non-dependant deductions (adjustments made to the maximum amount of reduction a person can receive to take account of adults living in the dwelling who are not dependants of the applicant); the applicable amount in relation to an applicant for a reduction (the amount against which an applicant’s income is compared in order to determine the amount of reduction to which he or she is entitled); the income bands in relation to which the amount of a person’s alternative maximum council tax reduction is calculated; and the amounts to be deducted from the calculation of the applicant’s income other than earnings.\nThe amendments made by regulations 7(b)(ii) and 11(b) insert references to new social security benefits, namely early years assistance and funeral expense assistance, to provide for how they are taken into account when determining eligibility for a reduction and the amount of a reduction. Regulation 11(b) also provides for how a payment of arrears of maternity allowance, or a payment made to compensate a person for the non-payment of maternity allowance, will be treated in the calculation of a person’s capital for the purpose of assessing whether they are entitled to a reduction.\nAn impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/23/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T22:34:52.597353+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}