My Council tax is principally collected for: Devon County Council, West Devon Borough Council, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority and Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner.
The Council Tax has to help fund the pensions of its employees and indirectly of current and retired employees of all the above authorities. Could you please advise what the cost of that total pension provision is currently and how much of my Council Tax, £3628, that accounts for?
Devon County Council, and local authorities generally, do not allocate or hypothecate council tax for specific purposes (except for the Adult Social Care precept which is shown in detail on the council tax bill), therefore Devon County Council does not hold this information. In the interests of providing advice and assistance we can provide the information below.
We can confirm that the 2022/23 Gross Expenditure budget is £1,558 million and includes budgeted pension costs of £58.826 million (which includes schools which are wholly grant funded). Budgeted pension costs therefore represent approximately 3.8% of Total Gross Expenditure.
It would however, be incorrect to extrapolate 3.8% of the County Council tax band D charge of £1,556.46 (for example,) as representing a value used to fund pension costs. This is because the overall Council Tax Requirement of £462 million on page 9 of the Budget Book 2022/23 is based on the Net Budget, i.e. Gross Expenditure budget less sources of funding, which include £92 million of Business rates, £121 million of fees and charges and £878 million of Government grants. The Council has published information on Staffing Data on page 15 of the 2022/23 Budget Book which includes in indication of those posts which are wholly externally funded (excluding schools).
Full details of our published accounts can be found on this Devon County Council webpage, which includes further information about the council tax, including the social care precept, and how it is spent.