changes to Council Tax Benefit

LL30

Just skimmed through a lot of this - I've not received anything from my council as yet. I'm just wondering how this will affect students? Currently they're exempt from paying council tax, will that still stand as exemption is different to CTB? Just about to start my MA (single mother) so I'd be interested to hear

CIS

Currently they're exempt from paying council tax, will that still stand as exemption is different to CTB?

There are currently no plans to alter Class N exemptions for students (although there are ongoing consultations to alter other council tax exemptions)

LL30

Thanks CIS, appreciated.

Cate1976

If my husband & I are still on benefits when the changes to Council Tax Benefit come in next year, I'll gladly pay the 25% as it's contributing to the things which the council spends it on. Most of the things that council tax is used for benefit everyone. For us, I've estimated that it'll be £6 week, this year the council tax for band A is £18.90 week.

MissMoneypenny

Just looked on my council's site and they are going to collect more council tax from the owners of empty properties. They are only going to protect pensioners, so the rest of claimants will have their claim reduced by about 18%.

Are state workers pensions paid from council taxes? If so, there is a big saving there and could be suggested on the consultations: that and less expenses/cuts in expenses, for councillors.

rogerblack

AnotherMakes3 wrote: »

I really hope this doesn't affect Scotland. We inherited our house when my hubby's dad died. We live in a small 3 bed with 3 kids but its a band E. Due to my hubby's hours and bonuses being cut at work we now qualify for CTB. No housing obviously as we own it. We should be £190pm and atm we pay £60.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-17769447

It's being covered by local authorities and the scottish government for at least 2013-14.
What will happen after that is probably going to be really strongly informed by what the reaction is to the changes in england.

BurnleyBob

No-one needs to possess the powers of Mystic Meg to understand that Housing Benefit will also become localised/devolved to 'incentivise' those working age, healthy adults who are reliant on them to redouble their efforts to secure jobs or better paying ones. At present, a moving average of approximately 80% of them are chasing non-existent employment opportunities.

Unless the UK's economy picks up in a big way (and the government doesn't think that it will until 2020 at the earliest) then what the law states is the minimum amount of money required for a person's living costs will be cut substantially by these stealthy means.

Successive governments have prepared for Britain's decline by constructing an immense surveillance apparatus that is the envy of the world's worst totalitarian regimes.

One surprise to me is that they haven't invested similarly huge sums in constructing new prisons in readiness for what's ahead.

rogerblack

BurnleyBob wrote: »

Unless the UK's economy picks up in a big way (and the government doesn't think that it will until 2020 at the earliest) then what the law states is the minimum amount of money required for a person's living costs will be cut substantially by these stealthy means.

The change in indexing for benefit uprating is already doing this to a degree.

The change in the future from this change alone is quite large!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UKinflation.png
If, for example, under the current system, the amount a single adult needs to live is around 70 pounds, increasing on RPI, then back in 1988, this would have been 25.92

If, instead, we take this rate of 25.92 in 1988, and extrapolate it to now, but using CPI, not RPI, we get a figure of 46.66, quite different from the current rate of 70 pounds.

Quite a difference!