Vulnerable young people leaving care to live on their own in Bath and North East Somerset will not have to pay Council Tax until they are aged 25 under plans recommended for approval by Councillors.

And Bath and North East Somerset Council’s foster carers, living and looking after children in the area, will also get a 25% reduction in their Council Tax bills, if approved.

The recommendations, which go before the Council’s Cabinet members on Wednesday, 7th February, had already won support across all parties at a recent meeting of the Full Council.

A report before Cabinet says the Council is currently providing a service to eighty care leavers, aged between 18–21 and of those eighteen are liable to pay some amount of Council Tax, with fifteen of those qualifying for some welfare benefit to pay it and three having to pay the full amount.

It says it would cost around £6,600 to apply the 100% discretionary allowance for these leavers. In addition, there are a further eighty care leavers aged 21–25 entitled to the Council Tax relief if still living in B&NES. Councillor Paul May (Conservative, Publow and Whitchurch), Cabinet member for Children and Young People, said: “Young care leavers, who have been our responsibility, rather than their parents’, are among the most vulnerable groups in our community. It is up to us to keep them safe and to support them. This is one way of doing that, by taking away a financial burden and avoiding it becoming a problem debt.”

B&NES already has a Council Tax Support Scheme to help people on low income as well as Hardship payments for people who need additional support, so any Care Leavers or Foster Carer’s scheme will be in addition to Council Tax Support if a balance remains payable.

Councillor May added: “Local foster parents are often able to give better care for children that need care in B&NES, so if it makes it better for recruiting and retaining foster careers, we need to support this initiative.”

The Council’s Fostering Team, which was rated outstanding by Ofsted, currently has 64 households who provide fostering services to children and 39 of these are within B&NES.