To authorise the Leader to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 October 2020 as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 5 October 2020 at a later date as a correct record of the proceedings.

An apology for absence had been received from Councillor K.M Field.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

There were no Declarations of interest.

The Government had introduced a payment of £500 for those households on low incomes if they had been instructed to self-isolate by the NHS and to do so would have adversely affected their income. The Government had tasked local government to administer the scheme which needed to be up and running by the 12 October 2020. Households were eligible from the 28 September and the scheme would operate until the 31 January 2021. 

The Government had also enabled Councils to have a discretionary scheme. Funding of £23,545 was to be provided but would limit the number of people the Council could help to 47. No further funding was likely at that stage and therefore would be on a first come first served basis. The discretionary scheme would deal with the scenario where a resident met the qualifying criteria, except that they were not in receipt of any of the benefits detailed in the report. A draft discretionary scheme was outlined at Appendix A to the report.

Applications were to be accepted via an on-line form on the Council’s website. In addition, the scheme required the Council to provide a telephone-based service for those residents not able to access the internet. The initial contact would be managed by the Council’s contact centre who would pass details to the Revenues and Benefits team.  The Council would also provide information regarding the other support residents that could be accessed around the district. This was to be available on the Council’s website and could be provided as part of the telephone service.  Payments were to be made within three working days of receipt of the application.

Members congratulated and gave thanks to the Assistant Director Resources, the Revenues and Benefits Manager and their team for their work over the previous months.

RESOLVED: That

1)         the test and trace support payment discretionary scheme outlined in Appendix A to the report be approved; and

2)         the Assistant Director Resources (Chief Finance Officer) be granted delegated authority to make minor amendments to the agreed scheme, in consultation with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance and Performance.

The Chairman of Council had agreed that this decision could be taken as a matter of urgency to allow the Council to implement the scheme in accordance with the Government’s timescale.