Charges for unpaid council tax 'push people further into debt'

CIS

tori.k wrote: »

TBH I much prefer the council tax than the old poll tax but to be fair i'd much prefer to keep the £157pm in my pocket.

Wouldn't we all.

Karonher

smallandcute wrote: »

I have just won a massive battle with my council in regards to my single persons discount which I had been fighting for since October 2014! They thought I should be paying full rate no matter what, I had to get my MP involved to get it sorted in the end so had over paid by a good grand. Think it's about time council tax was scrapped. Apart from the bin collections everything else is paid for from our income tax and I already hand over enough of that each month. I don't how they expect those on a low wage to be able to afford the stupidly high rates in the first place. I earn 16k. I live in cheapest place in my area and buy my food from asda and get the bus for work. Buy the time I have paid for those things I can't afford the council tax on top!

I am not sure why you only think is just the bin service that the council provides. It is education, social services, libraries, sports centres, housing in some areas, money goes to the emergency services, the entire infrastructure needs funding, parks and gardens need maintaining, they have responsibility for licensing and planning and by the way - the bus companies will receive money so that their fares can be kept down. On top of that, they have a section that will deal with benefits that residents receive.

As an example, Liverpool has an estimated 206,500 households and if council tax stopped they would have a massive shortfall. Even if it was £110 a month each one paid - and in many areas of Liverpool it will be higher - some will pay around £250 and some over £300- imagine the services that will have to be cut if all of that money was not raised. These figures are without taking into account council tax benefit and single person allowances.

Grants are given from government and at least for the minute from Europe but there is still the need to raise enough to keep towns and cities running.

CIS

Council Tax arrears are currently totalling £2.7 billion - something needs to be looked at. Whether this is a change in the system or a change of way money is re-covered something needs to be done.

Many of the clients I deal with have a charge that is actually too high when it's looked in to so the £2.7 billion is on the high side but even after adjustments the figure is likely still going to stay over £2 billion.

dekaspace

From personal experience though I have disablity and mental health issues I have often forgot to pay bills then made my mental health worse when I found out they added to it or took it from my benefits direct.

At previous property they more than triple dipped into my benefits, took 2 payments off my JSA and lowered my HB payments (though that was they claim due to overpayment) and I didnt even get full LHA anyway so ended up £30 a week top up for rent, and paying over £20 a week in council tax out of £70 payment and still had food, utilities etc to pay on top.

sourcrates

In a lot of cases, arrears build up because people are paying the wrong amount of council tax.
The current system seems to be to complex even for the councils to figure out correctly.

My case in point, since my divorce in 2012, I have lived with my brother, who is retired, he is the homeowner, hence the bill should be in his name, with my wage taken into account when calculating what we pay.

Our council insisted this was incorrect, this lasted 3 years until they finally admitted, yep, we got it wrong, you were right after all.

So we were overpaying by £100 a month, for 3 years, and I have no recourse to get any of that money back, that's £3600 I'm out of pocket !!!!!

CIS

sourcrates wrote: »

In a lot of cases, arrears build up because people are paying the wrong amount of council tax.
The current system seems to be to complex even for the councils to figure out correctly.

My case in point, since my divorce in 2012, I have lived with my brother, who is retired, he is the homeowner, hence the bill should be in his name, with my wage taken into account when calculating what we pay.

Our council insisted this was incorrect, this lasted 3 years until they finally admitted, yep, we got it wrong, you were right after all.

So we were overpaying by £100 a month, for 3 years, and I have no recourse to get any of that money back, that's £3600 I'm out of pocket !!!!!

Presumably CTR ?. From a council tax liability/discount/exemption route that's what I tend to be helping clients with. You should however look at a Section 13A writeoff.

Craig

dekaspace

I know what happened with my parents going back almost 15 years was they were students but on benefits and were told they still had to pay CT despite being full time (though with reduction not exemption)

Found out they were owed hundreds when they finally complained.

The council refused to refund and instead "credited" that years council tax bill with the amount.

Except you mean the same yearly bill they owed nothing in first place as they were exempt anyway!

And they refused to add it to next years bill.