The draft East Surrey scheme lifts maximum support to 100% and scraps the band cap. 808 Elmbridge households would get more, 380 less. Have your say by 3 December.
Elmbridge’s 2,883 working-age households on Council Tax Support would be assessed under new rules from 1 April 2027, and a consultation on those rules is open until Thursday 3 December.
The draft scheme is for the new East Surrey Council, which replaces Elmbridge Borough Council next April. On the council’s own modelling, 808 Elmbridge households (28%) would receive more support, 380 (13.2%) would receive less, and 1,695 (58.8%) would see no change.
The borough has the biggest share of gainers of any of the five areas apart from Epsom and Ewell. Every one of the 380 Elmbridge households modelled as worse off loses because of a single proposed rule: a flat £10 a week deduction for each other adult living in the home.
Elmbridge Borough Council announced the consultation on 7 October. The proposals, the modelling and the questionnaire are on the East Surrey consultation page.
What Council Tax Reduction is
Council Tax Reduction, which Elmbridge calls Council Tax Support, cuts the council tax bill of people on a low income. It is credited to the council tax account rather than paid in cash. Each billing council sets its own rules for working-age residents. Pensioners are covered by a national scheme and are not affected by this consultation.
A band D home in Elmbridge pays £2,556.87 this year, so the difference between a 90% and a 100% maximum award is worth about £256 a year to a household on the lowest income.
How Elmbridge’s current scheme works
Elmbridge’s own scheme summary is one of the tighter schemes in East Surrey. For working-age claimants outside its protected groups:
- most households get at most 90% of their bill covered, so everyone pays at least 10%
- households in paid work, or with a child under five, get up to 95%
- households in bands G and H get nothing unless they are in a protected group, and bands E and F are capped at the band D charge
- savings over £16,000 end entitlement, and every £250 above £6,000 counts as £1 a week of income
- each other adult in the home triggers a deduction of £5, £10.20, £12.80 or £15.35 a week, depending on that adult’s income
- late claims can only be backdated one month
Protected groups, which keep 100% support, include households receiving carer or disability premiums, war pensions, and the Universal Credit carer or disabled child elements.
What the draft East Surrey scheme proposes
The consultation FAQs set out one scheme for Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge:
- up to 100% of the bill covered, for everyone who qualifies
- no band cap: support is calculated on the actual bill, band A to band H
- a £16,000 savings limit, with no assumed income from savings below it
- a means test with a 20% taper: support falls by 20p for every £1 of income above the household’s assessed needs
- a flat £10 a week deduction for each other adult in the home
- no award at all where the calculated support is under £5 a week
- self-employed claimants treated as earning at least 35 hours at the minimum wage after a 12-month start-up period
- backdating of up to three months
- small Universal Credit changes ignored: a change of under £100, or an assessment delayed by more than 50 days, does not trigger a new bill
- time-limited transitional protection for some households facing a big cut
The Universal Credit buffer is lifted directly from Elmbridge’s existing rules. The modelling paper describes it as “an Elmbridge-style Universal Credit change buffer”.
Who in Elmbridge gains and who loses
The gains come from the two rules Elmbridge applies that the other councils do not: the 90% ceiling and the band cap. Lifting the ceiling to 100% helps the lowest-income households. Removing the cap helps the 337 Elmbridge claimants in bands E to H (261 in band E, 63 in F, 11 in G and 2 in H), who are 11.7% of the borough’s caseload.
The losses come from the non-dependant deduction. Elmbridge has 578 claimant households with at least one other adult living there, a fifth of the caseload. Those currently paying the £5 deduction for a low-earning adult child would pay £10 under the draft. The modelling paper says the £10 deduction “should therefore be presented transparently as a substantive policy choice”, and the questionnaire asks about exemptions.
Two further rules are not yet in the headline figures. Across East Surrey, 257 households have awards under £5 a week and would get nothing under the minimum award rule. The self-employed minimum income floor has not been modelled at all.
The wider picture
Across the five areas the draft would cost about £18.8m a year against £19.2m now, a saving of around £394,000. Of 11,786 households, 2,020 would gain, 1,689 would lose and 8,077 would be unchanged.
Five options were modelled. The two cheapest, with a 90% ceiling and a band E cap, would have cut spending by £2.5m to £2.9m and left 86% to 87% of households worse off. The council chose the option that keeps 100% support and no cap.
The comparative analysis also profiles the Elmbridge caseload:
| Elmbridge working-age claimants | Households | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Single adults | 1,527 | 53.0% |
| Lone parents | 917 | 31.8% |
| Couples with children | 252 | 8.7% |
| In work | 533 | 18.5% |
| With another adult in the home | 578 | 20.0% |
| Aged 56 to 65 | 888 | 30.8% |
Elmbridge has 4.8 claimant households per 100 homes, against 5.6 in Epsom and Ewell and Tandridge. Walton North is the only Elmbridge ward on the report’s list of neighbourhoods with relatively higher deprivation.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes before April 2027. Current awards continue under Elmbridge’s rules until the new scheme takes effect.
- If you are in band E to H, or you currently pay the 10% minimum contribution, the draft would probably increase your support.
- If an adult son, daughter or relative lives with you, check whether you currently pay the £5 deduction. The draft doubles it to £10 a week, unless an exemption applies.
- If your award is small, under £5 a week, it would stop altogether.
- Pensioners are not affected. The national pension-age scheme continues.
- Residents will get a text or email about the consultation through GOV.UK Notify. The council says these messages are genuine.
The questionnaire is at the East Surrey consultation page and closes at 11.59pm on 3 December. Paper copies, help by phone and other formats are available from Elmbridge’s contact centre on 01372 474474 or ctrseastsurrey@surreylgrhub.gov.uk. Written responses go to the Resident Insight Unit, Woodhatch Place, 11 Cockshot Hill, Reigate, RH2 8EF.
The final scheme goes to a Full Council meeting in January 2027. The FAQs say the proposal “is not a final decision” and that individual features may change after the consultation.
Have your say