Brian Gibbons, Minister for Social Justice and Local Government has issued a written statement on increasing benefit take-up.

In 2006-07 the Assembly Government allocated £1.5m to local authorities to support them in their efforts to increase take-up of Council Tax Benefit. Across Wales as a whole, approximately 7,000 more over-60s claimed Council Tax Benefit between May 2005 and February 2007.

A working group was set up to research the barriers to Council Tax Benefit take-up in Wales and to highlight and promote best practice, based on the experience of the local authorities that have successfully increased Council Tax Benefit take-up in recent years. The report of this working group is now available.

The full statement is available to download from the Welsh Assembly Government website.