Council Tax Reduction scheme

Open for comments from Wednesday 13 August to Friday 31 October 2025.

Council Tax Reduction was introduced in 2013 to help those on low incomes pay their Council Tax. While the scheme works the same across the country for those of pensionable age, each local authority is responsible for its own version or versions of the scheme for working age claimants.

Each year, councils must review their Council Tax Reduction scheme for working-age residents to make sure it continues to meet local needs.

Although the overall cost of Council Tax Reduction goes up each year, this is mostly due to increases in Council Tax itself.

As a share of the total cost, Council Tax Reduction has stayed steady—and in some years, it has even gone down thanks to growth in the city.

There is a separate national scheme for pensioners, which councils cannot change.

The majority of people who are eligible for Council Tax Reduction are people of working age who are in receipt of Universal Credit.

More details on the current version of the scheme can be found on our Council Tax Reduction for Universal Credit recipients webpage.

Have your say

We are now reviewing our Council Tax Reduction scheme for working-age households and want to hear your views on the proposed changes.

Select the 'Take the survey' button on this page to leave your feedback.

The survey closes on Friday 31 October 2025. Any responses received after this date will not be considered.

To request the survey in another format, please email rbsupport@cambridge.gov.uk.

Next steps

Your feedback will help us shape the final scheme to be published in December, with the changes coming into effect from 1 April 2026.