The end of Council Tax Benefit!

seven-day-weekend

krisskross wrote: »

I think it has always been wrong to provide completely free housing and no council tax to pay. Everyone should pay something for the roof over their head and the local facilities, schools, libraries, rubbish collection etc.

Agree, and always have, even if it is only a fiver a week for both.

yellowduck_2

I work part time due to poor health and other than the 25% single person discount get no help at all towards the council tax. It costs me 12.5% of my take home pay each month and yes, I have cut back on food to pay it as my council fine you £50 if you are late with more than one payment. The whole matter of local taxation needs a root and branch reform. Council tax is a massive burden on people on low wages, I only pay £18 a month income tax, why do I pay over 4 times this amount in council tax?

hallowitch

as my council fine you £50 if you are late with more than one payment.

first time Ive come across being fine for being late with more than one payment

do you mean the administration cost for taking it to court for a liability order ?

Dunroamin

Murphymycat wrote: »

Can you please supply your evidence for this statement. Would also be helpful if you could supply some contact details so that those of us who cannot afford these extras can talk to them and find out what we are doing wrong

Have you never met unemployed people who go for a drink or who smoke because I certainly have; our local Wetherspoons is full of them. Do you really need me to trawl through this board to give examples of unemployed people who have Sky or who want to know the rules for having a holiday whilst signing on?

Are you living in an alternative universe?

leveller2911

Dunroamin wrote: »

Have you never met unemployed people who go for a drink or who smoke because I certainly have; our local Wetherspoons is full of them. Do you really need me to trawl through this board to give examples of unemployed people who have Sky or who want to know the rules for having a holiday whilst signing on?

Are you living in an alternative universe?

Visit any town centre pub at lunchtime and there will be a number of dolites supping a pint or standing outside having a fag.The locals know who they are and also know the ones working cash in hand.;)

Some don't need Sky TV as most pubs have it and many spend more time in the pub than at home.

enabledebra

To echo other posters the ct aspect of localism is indeed poll tax by another name. In fact in my area the proposal is that working age people will only have a maximum of 80% of their council tax liability covered by Council tax benefit. Interestingly, based on our band A charge this works out as all JSA/IS claimants having to pay £5 to council tax out of the benefit given to them to meet their food/fuel basic costs = 7% of a single JSA claimant's income. Poll tax took approx 14% of JSA but give them time.

chris1973

Everyone should pay something for the roof over their head and the local facilities, schools, libraries, rubbish collection etc.

I agree, but how about the ones who don't use these services, shouldn't they be like everything else in life, and chargeable on a pay as you use basis - *IF* you choose to use them.

I don't have nor intend on having any children, so its unfair that single people, childless couples, the elderly etc are subsidising those intent on raising a football team. I've not used the leisure centre since I was about ten years old, nor have any intention of setting foot in there. I've never visited a library since I left school, and don't need one since Google, Kindle, internet forums and E-books became available.

Rubbish collection around here is a joke, having a once weekly collection, which turned into a fortnightly collection, which is now at a 'we'll turn up when we feel like it' collection stage - provided of course that the roads aren't too icy, or somebodies wheelie bin isn't 2 inches too far into their driveway, in order to 'conform' to their Job descriptions!.

That's also not including those in rural areas, living miles from any of these facilities, or in villages that simply don't have them and never will.

If these facilities were charged on a pay-as-you-use basis just as the same as Electricity, Telephones, or paying admission to go into a nightclub or indeed most of everything else out there, then believe me i'd have one of the lowest Council Taxes in the Country!.

One of the first things that people on low income, or facing a financial shortfall will do, is to cut non essential services and 'luxuries' and use the saving to re-assess funds and pay priority bills and debts. However this seems to not be possible with the Council Tax, and normally, I would forgo a theoretical swim, or a game of squash in order to ensure that I could pay the Electricity Bill, because for me, being warm and having heat and light is much more important than visiting the leisure centre or having an extra bin collection. But since through the Council tax, everybody pays for the lifestyle, choices, hobbies and pastimes of others, its not possible to reduce the charge, by cutting back on the use of the service(s).

Unfortunately the vast majority of Council Tax money seems to be wasted on needless things, like the Electricity needed to light up statues, flower beds and trees with batteries of floodlights in the park at 3am, which is neither 'green' nor a constructive use of council tax money.