TORRIDGE District Council is asking local residents to have their say on some major changes to the way council tax benefits are calculated.

The Government has asked local councils to come up with new local council tax support schemes to replace council tax benefits. These new schemes must come into effect from April 2013.

At the same time, the Government has also cut the amount of money each district has to pay for council tax support, meaning some difficult decisions have to be made about who will be offered financial support in the future and how much they will be given.

An eight-week consultation began last week, allowing local people to have their say on the new local council tax support schemes. Although only working age people will be directly affected by the changes, everyone needs to know what is happening, and everyone's views are valued.

Leader of Torridge District Council, Cllr Barry Parsons says: 'We will be asking people to fill in online or paper surveys and to let us know if they think we have got our district scheme right. We will be inviting all sections of the adult population to take part in the survey — not just those who are directly affected. It's really important that we limit the impact on our benefit claimants, so we must design the best scheme we can and operate it effectively.'