A DECISION by Cotswold District Council to class child maintenance as income has been criticised by Citizens Advice.

People who received child maintenance and were not on universal credit had until now been entitled to council tax support, but they will now lose that if they receive child maintenance.

The decision could see people having to pay up to an extra £595 more than they were before. It's a decision that Citizens Advice feel could be indirect discrimination against women under the Equalities Act.

Mary Cobbett, a benefit specialist at Citizens Advice Stroud and Cotswolds said: "Council tax support is very important to people. Women on benefits have child responsibilities so rely on help.

"We want to see if this regulation can be challenged because the council are making a saving from the poorest residents. I've contacted the Equality and Human Rights Commission as it could be classed as discriminatory towards women but that would need to be proved."

One of Mary's clients, Kate Owens, of Tetbury, was surprised when her family's council tax support was stopped, as the new regulation came into force this year.

She said: "We were shocked and angry. Child Maintenance is supposed to be protected income. We had no warning until it went up.

"We've lost all council tax support and have more financial problems now. We're managing but money as a bonus has disappeared.

"We want to buy things like appliances but we can't and it's hard to make ends meet. If I didn't have two jobs our income would be rock bottom, it just isn't right. We're on the old benefit system before universal credit."

The regulation was subject to a public consultation survey where 55 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposal. Despite this, the council has said they will review the measure at the end of the financial year but there's still ways people can get help with their council tax in the meantime.

A spokesman said: "As part of the 2017/18 council tax support scheme, council members agreed to establish a hardship fund. This means we can provide additional support to those customers who can demonstrate that they are suffering financial hardship and are unable to meet their council tax contributions.

"Additionally, we have client support officers who can work with them to review their income/expenditure and identify all available avenues of support.

"Our records show that the resident who contacted the Citizens Advice service has not applied for council tax support discretionary payments and we would recommend that she does so our team can review her council tax payments."