Council Tax Support 500% increase in Council Tax - not so supportive

nannytone_2

sammyjammy wrote: »

I was unemployed for a short time in 1990, I got £32 something a week in unemployment benefit. My mum took £15 and I had to pay my poll tax from it. The rest was for bus fares to and from towns (rural area)

thats an awful lot dofferent from havimg to [ay your pwn utilities and food on top!

Naf

nannytone wrote: »

got the letter yesterday confirming that they are charging 20%, and received the actuak vbill today with a payment schedule.

they want just under £26 a month by 1st october ... so in 7 payments.i thought council tax was paid over 10 months?

mysterywoman10 wrote: »

I thought it could be paid over 10 months Nanny if it is by DD?

Maybe give them a ring and ask them why it is only over 7 payments and not 10 ? Also I think someone said somewhere you could opt for 12 months now?

You now officially have the right to opt to pay over 12 months; but you can pay over as few months as you like. If you can afford the £26: why not have a completely CT-Free Christmas & New Year?

nannytone_2

Naf wrote: »

You now officially have the right to opt to pay over 12 months; but you can pay over as few months as you like. If you can afford the £26: why not have a completely CT-Free Christmas & New Year?

thats what im thinking about now.
but i'm not sure i can afford the £82 a month ( with the reduction in hb)
my utilities are £120 a month so it wpuld leave me with £200 a month for fppd and all other expenses

KxMx

We haven't had our bill yet, and the local council's website is as clear as mud. I even read through the ponderous minutes of the meeting and no further to answering my questions.

I know they've ended alot of the relief for second homes/ empty properties, but nothing so far about the rebates apart from "we are ending some".

Mum pays all CT apart from £3.65 odd a week due to me being on a low income. If we lose this then it can be made up easily but I would be annoyed because it's the only "compensation" my Mum gets for me having such a low income.

If i'd have been in a position to be earning i would be in my own place by now. But for the years preceding this I would have been able to hand over far more keep and pay for more around the house!

I took part in the consultation process in which it was suggested there were 4 options to balance the books- however it seems they are actually implementing 2-3 of those so they were a bit sneaky asking people to choose one option to support.

mysterywoman10

The point being LA's are only having to balance the books because the Government are reducing the statutory benefit entitlement payable to the Councils.

It's a can of worms!

Our Council hasn't put a thing on their website, they seem to be holding out on implementing at the moment, some have. Which actually might turn out to be a wise move with all the costs that are clearly going to arise out of implementing it, see what happens first!

nannytone_2

regardless of who wins the next election, these changes wont be reversed. it's saving too much money.

it's a pity because the real cost is human and not just numbers.

mysterywoman10

nannytone wrote: »

regardless of who wins the next election, these changes wont be reversed. it's saving too much money.

it's a pity that the real cost human and not just numbers.

I'm hopeful Nanny that they will be reveresed in regard to Disabled people regardless of which government is in power.

Your case is a good one that could go forward for appeal

fluffymovie

This is a total nightmare for us at LA's - I have been at 2 since Council Tax Reduction Scheme came in and both have quite different schemes.

I think the message is that we were told that we had to create our own scheme but that we were not able to reduce the 25% SPD in any way (even if the single person is very wealthy).

We were then told that we had to protect vulnerable groups so the disabled, households with children, provide an incentive to work and exclude pensioners and we would receive 10% less funding than we do today.

In my last LA, our caseload was 49% Working Age and 51% Pension age so that meant that the 10% had to split over 49% of the population and provide the same savings! Once we calculated those who receive DLA, this meant that we would have to apply the cut over 38% of the population.

In my current LA, we have decided to stick with the default scheme (which is the same as CTB is today) but this will cost us £200k this year alone.

The options are therefore limited as far as do we increase the bills for those on low incomes, who we know are going to struggle to pay it, or reduce services (don't forget Ctax includes precepts for Fire and Police which we aren't really allowed to touch for good reason)

If you believe that the consultation wasn't not done properly, you can only challenge it at this stage, through Judicial Review. If you think the way your Council Tax Reduction has been calculated (for example think earnings are wrong) you need to go to the LA but then to the Valuation Tribunal Service.

shell1965

My partner & me receive Contribution Based ESA fortnightly, we live in the Borough of Pendle the CTS this year is £1033, we have just received our bill and are expected to pay 206.00 for the year, I am going to write to the CTS and ask them to allow us to pay over 12 months instead of 10.

mysterywoman10

Thanks fluffymovie very informative post.

I was discussing the Appeals for this with a friend this morning and of course as you say it will have to be the Valuation Tribunal Service who have absolutely no experience or knowledge of the benefits system, so that is going to be interesting!

How precise were the instructions regarding protecting disabled people and children etc. from the Government?

Because clearly some authorities are exempting DLA receipients and others are not?