The Council’s CTRS 22/23 was approved by the Executive as part of the annual review in January 2023.

A Valuation Tribunal (“VT”) decision made on 17 March 2023 determined that in the case in which the appeal had been brought, the Council had not assessed claims made by those in receipt of UC with eligible childcare costs in accordance with the strict wording of its CTRS.

Following the VT decision in March 2023, the Council sought the advice of experts, including legal experts, to secure guidance to help review the Council’s overall position.

As a result of the review, it was recognised that, in seeking to clarify the Council’s operational approach to assessments of claims made by those in receipt of UC with eligible childcare costs by proposing amendments to clarify the CTRS wording at the time of the annual review in January 2023, it had not identified that a change to the CTRS was being proposed and had not consulted on that proposed change.

This report sets out the decisions which now need to be made in relation to the steps proposed to be taken to remedy the position.

1)    The Executive notes the contents of the report.

2)    That the Executive approve the proposed immediate interim measures, as detailed in section 6.1 of the report, as the basis of assessment of all new claims made by those in receipt of UC with eligible childcare costs.

3)    The Executive approves the proposal that the wording for the Council’s CTRS 24/25 should be the same wording as contained in the current CTRS 23/24, and that the Council should apply the 24/25 CTRS to claims generally but operationally assess claims made by those in receipt of Universal Credit with eligible childcare costs in accordance with the strict wording in the 22/23 CTRS, which will instead be applied to ensure that such claimants are not assessed any less favourably.

4)    The Executive approves the proposed scope of claims detailed in section 6.3 of the report.

5)    The Executive approves the proposal to undertake individual reassessments of each claim that is in scope of the restitution exercise.

6)    The Executive approves the proposals detailed in section 6.5 of the report in respect of engaging with in-scope claimants.