With the abolition of council tax benefit taking effect in April 2013, local authorities are faced with the task of designing and implementing replacement schemes that not only meet the needs of vulnerable households, but also factor in a 10 percent cut in benefit funding.

A key issue for local authorities to tackle is disaggregating the current cost of administering claims, as in most cases these are assessed jointly with Housing Benefit which will no longer apply with the introduction of Universal Credit. A lack of information, combined with no standard mode of delivery, means that councils will have to be cautious when it comes to planning their strategy and budget accordingly.