The end of Council Tax Benefit!

Voyager2002

I am astonished after receiving a letter from my local Council. It states that the government is abolishing Council Tax benefit, which up to now has been paid by central government. Instead, local councils will have to decide how much help to give to people who cannot afford council tax, and of course the cost of such help will come out of the various services that the council provides. Furthermore, it seems that individual councils will be able to decide what level of assistance to give to different claimants, with the possibility that everyone of working age will have to pay something towards their council tax.

This is a major change, likely to cause severe hardship for many claimants and to affect everyone who uses the services provided by local government. Yet I have not seen any discussion of it in the news media, nor on this site.

princessdon

Really? 2 current threads about this at the moment (on discussion time).

WestonDave

Its certainly around and if you look through the details on your council website you'll probably find what they are doing about it. There was a thread on here recently about it. Typically councils are restricting the amount of help to 75-80% of the council tax bill (leaving 20-25% to pay) and restricting the top amount to be a band D house (so if you have a band E property you'll get say 80% of the band D bill and have to find the rest). They are also often looking at exemptions on empty properties etc and removing those either altogether or after a shorter period.

Ours seems to think what they are doing will be revenue neutral at 80% so it won't impact services (presumably government has put some of the previous costs into the grant councils get but maybe only around 75-80% of it) directly.

speedyturtle

Now i am not on jobseekers but lets say someone is on job seekers and we all know that you dont get much money on the job seekers and people actually are struggling to live on the amount they currently getting. After this new council tax rule comes in place, would these people who are claiming JS would have to pay something towards the council tax? what if they cant afford to pay and what if they fall behind there council tax cause they gotta put the food first before the council tax.

nannytone_2

its simple. they MUSTNT put food first.
council tax is the priority.

ive looked on my councils website, and it still says they have yet to reach a conclusionon what theyre new charging system will be.
but theyve renames it 'councik support' instead of council tax benefit.
wonder how long it took them to think of that!

another thought ......
if someone is in a 2 bed cpuncil glat, but lives alone ( possibly due to the shortage of 1 bed properties), then food will become a memory!

they will be looking at having to find about £15 _ £29 a week before theyve even thought about other bills ( gas, electric, T V licence)

speedyturtle

nannytone wrote: »

its simple. they MUSTNT put food first.
council tax is the priority.

Thats what i thought as well:T

Irn-Bru-Kid

speedyturtle wrote: »

Now i am not on jobseekers but lets say someone is on job seekers and we all know that you dont get much money on the job seekers and people actually are struggling to live on the amount they currently getting. After this new council tax rule comes in place, would these people who are claiming JS would have to pay something towards the council tax? what if they cant afford to pay and what if they fall behind there council tax cause they gotta put the food first before the council tax.

Those who claim benefits will need to stick to the same rules as those of us who don't when it comes to council tax. Put simply, you need to cough up> Be that 100% or 20% of your council tax bill.

There are millions of working family's who are living on the breadline, struggling to put food on the table and they have to pay their council tax in full and on time.

Benefit claimants are not the only people struggling day to day.

seven-day-weekend

I have always thought that everyone should pay something, even if only a couple of pounds a week.

speedyturtle

Irn-Bru-Kid wrote: »

Those who claim benefits will need to stick to the same rules as those of us who don't when it comes to council tax. Put simply, you need to cough up> Be that 100% or 20% of your council tax bill.

There are millions of working family's who are living on the breadline, struggling to put food on the table and they have to pay their council tax in full and on time.

Benefit claimants are not the only people struggling day to day.

I dont really know the current rate of JS and how much weekly they are paid but it was somewhere around £115 for fortnight. I am not trying to defend anyone here or put anyone down but with things going more and more expensive and household bills going up do you think £115 is enough for fortnight and than on top of that pay the council tax as well? Unless people are suggesting that people should even stop watching tv or using phone and walk rather than using bus?

Irn-Bru-Kid

speedyturtle wrote: »

I dont really know the current rate of JS and how much weekly they are paid but it was somewhere around £115 for fortnight. I am not trying to defend anyone here or put anyone down but with things going more and more expensive and household bills going up do you think £115 is enough for fortnight and than on top of that pay the council tax as well? Unless people are suggesting that people should even stop watching tv or using phone and walk rather than using bus?

If that's what you have to do to survive yes. We all have to make sacrifices in difficult times and if that means walking instead of catching a bus, that's what you need to do.

Times are tough and for some its about to get a lot tougher.

annie1975_2

We dont get housing benefit of any kind, but I think its unfair to expect people to pay something out of £71 a week. On the other hand if you are a family,or someone with children and getting quite a bit then yes you should cough up a bit.
A man I know lost his job,split from his partner,found rented accomodation,(cheapest he could )..rent is £450 a month and HB pay something like £350-£375 towards the rent.he has to put the rest to it himself out of his JSA.They said he should have got a 1 bed flat while hes on his own (Though the rent on that could have been more).But he has his children stay over at weekends and sometimes in the week so needed extra bedrooms.
Makes you wonder what this government will think up next to make peoples lives worse than they already are.