The Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021

Minimum income floor

56.—(1) Where—

(a) an applicant has an award of universal credit and the Secretary of State has determined for the purposes of that award that the applicant is in gainful self-employment,

(b) when calculating the applicant’s earned income for any given assessment period for the purposes of that award of universal credit—

(i) the applicant’s earned income was less than their individual threshold but was treated as being equal to that threshold, or

(ii) the applicant was a member of a couple and the couple’s combined earned income was less than the couple threshold,

under regulation 62 of the 2013 Regulations (minimum income floor)(1), and

(c) the Secretary of State has shared relevant information relating to the applicant’s income with the relevant authority in accordance with section 131 of the 2012 Act,

a relevant authority may use such parts of that information as is relevant for the purposes of calculating an applicant’s income in an assessment period.

(2) In paragraph (1) “couple”, “couple threshold”, “earned income”, “gainful self-employment” and “individual threshold” have the meaning given to them in the 2013 Regulations.

(3) In calculating an applicant’s income, any surplus earnings determined in accordance with regulation 54A(3) of the 2013 Regulations are to be treated as earned income, unless the relevant authority considers it unreasonable to treat the surplus earnings in that way.

(4) This regulation does not apply in respect of an assessment period that falls wholly within a start-up period or which begins or ends in a start-period, and for this purpose—

(a) “start-up period” has the meaning given by regulation 63 of the 2013 Regulations (meaning of start-up period)(2), but

(b) does not include a start-up period that the Secretary of State has terminated under paragraph (3) of that regulation.

(1)

Regulation 62 was amended by S.I. 2014/2888, S.I. 2015/345, S.I. 2015/1754 and S.I. 2019/1249.

(2)

Regulation 63 was amended by S.I. 2019/1152.