That Council be recommended to adopt the Council Tax Support (CTS) scheme currently in operation, with the four changes detailed below for 2014/15:

1) The applicable amounts are uprated by 1% to keep them in line with inflationary increases to Housing Benefit and other welfare benefits (appendix 1 to the report).

2) That the Non-dependant deductions are frozen at their current rate (appendix 2 to the report).

3) That the remaining funding allocated to the £50k discretionary fund (as a one off in year 1) is rolled over into 2014/15. This is estimated to be between £30K and £40k by the end of the year.

4) That the temporary extra steps built into the Council Tax recovery process for residents on CTS are removed and brought into line with existing processes.

To ensure that the Council approves a local scheme by 31st January 2014 for the 2014/15 financial year.

Continue with the current scheme without uprating Council Tax Support - this would penalise certain groups, especially those in work who may not receive an inflationary pay increase; increase the Non-dependant deductions - this would require some form of public consultation and transitional protection arrangements would need to be considered.