changes to Council Tax Benefit

SkyeKnight

BigAunty wrote: »

But the lack of help for band E and over is mind-boggling - imagine someone on a low paid sickness or job seeking benefit who has to find perhaps £50 a week for their council tax.

I'm reading it as the amount of benefit is limited to Band D, so if you are in a Band E property you will not get no help at all, but get 75% of the Band D paid. Is that right?

BigAunty

SkyeKnight wrote: »

I'm reading it as the amount of benefit is limited to Band D, so if you are in a Band E property you will not get no help at all, but get 75% of the Band D paid. Is that right?

Yes,that's how I've read it - a discount of around 25-30% proposed by some councils for those in receipt of benefits up to Band D and nothing for those in Band E or above, meaning that many councils will stop allowing thousands of claimants to have full council tax discounts and will stop those in more expensive properties from having any discount at all.

nannytone_2

everyone will be effected to some degree. seems really unfair .... it all depends on hosw your local authority veiws things.

we already know the .bedroom tax' is happening. so if there are no 1 bed properties you will lose 14% of entitlement. and now the disvretion over council tax.....
i have heard nothing as of today .... but id the charge of 25% is adopyed, i will have to pay £21 a week. not a huge amount. but when my weekly applicable amount is £140 .... then its a\ lot!

youre talking £21 a week out of an income of £140.
i would dearly love to work ..... but show me an employer that would take me?

i have a 2 bed property.... not choice.... butt availabilty.

in mu experience, the 1 beds are reserved for vulnerable tyoung people. and thats great. but i need a property in the area that i know and that has the support that i need.

by all means, hit the workshy and lazy.... but this move hits the disaled terriby.

i have an income of £560 every 4 weerks( just under)

my additional outgoings will be £80 a month.
if i were in a position to better myself then id accept it. but im not

WashingTime

princessdon wrote: »

I think one thing that will stand out will be the postcode lottery

Eg

LA A - 25% to pay
LA B - 5% to pay
LA C - 0% to pay

They really need some form of uniformity


But I do agree with them paying something (not 25% though - even I think that is harsh) as it makes them realise that bills need to be paid. 5% accross the board (pensioners too) would have been more fair to me personally.

But a universal approach undermines the whole point of local choice in how our public money is spent on subsidising people on low/no incomes!

And if that were the case, the Government could do it itself (much more cheaply). But then the blame would end up on the door of Eric Pickles ... far better to let the councils carry the can!:rotfl:

If you're not happy, there's only two places to go!

nannytone_2

the whole point is making local authorities responsible! so then we scream and shout at the people that have to implement the changes rtather than those that make the decision

WashingTime

Nannytone - so who are you going to scream and shout at?

SkyeKnight

BigAunty wrote: »

Yes,that's how I've read it - a discount of around 25-30% proposed by some councils for those in receipt of benefits up to Band D and nothing for those in Band E or above, meaning that many councils will stop allowing thousands of claimants to have full council tax discounts and will stop those in more expensive properties from having any discount at all.

Actually, that's the opposite to what I thought. I read it as the discount being limited to 75% of Band D. If you are in Band E you will still get a discount.

fatbelly

No significant changes for those who live in Dudley!


Council Tax Benefit in Dudley

Murphymycat

After perusing mid Devon's website I noticed that more than half of the recipients of CTB are pensioners. This may be because lots of people retire here (or I could be talking a load of rubbish and most councils do the same). This means that there is a smaller pool of people to make up the 10% cuts that the council has to make.

sarahlouise28

Mara69 wrote: »

Sounds reasonable - especially limiting the amount of CTB to a band D.

Council Tax Benefit used to be restricted to a Band D many moons ago. As in they would only pay up to a band D if you were in receipt benefit.

That is what I don't like about the new Council Tax rebate/ relief scheme - that its local and two people on the border of two different local authorities could end up with different entitlements. So in effect like someone else said a post code lottery . Dependent upon on how much that particular local authority has to save.

I think this may turn into a real issue especially with all the other benefit changes coming into effect at the same time - benefit cap, restriction for under occupancy in housing association properties etc.