Luton Council Tax Attack on OAP's! Need your help!

CIS

00ec25 wrote: »

so your rant is that your parents "accepted" a CT reduction 15 years ago having just (?) retired at an age when they were certainly still able to think for themselves and had until then been paying full council tax, but they could not be bothered to try and understand what they were getting, why they were getting it, and question should they be getting it. And now, in keeping with current trends in society, you think someone else is to blame for their own failure.

What can probably give the council more ammunition in the matter is that a declaration would likely have been completed more than once during this time.

Wayne_O_Mac

gwizard98 wrote: »

all I can say is one day you'll be old too.

And when I am, I won't commit council tax fraud.

kidmugsy

Do any posts on this forum with titles like "Luton Council Tax Attack on OAP's!" ever contain anything but drivel?

silverwhistle

gwizard98 wrote: »

Secondly - On what planet is 26K high income between two people, and especially enough to have 'significant savings'?? I'm not sure you live in the UK.

Nobody is saying it's high, but a lot of people live on far, far less. I'm single and live comfortably on about 14K take home, although admittedly I have savings I haven't touched yet. Two people live more cheaply than double one across a whole range of spending areas. I've never thought for one moment that I would be eligible for reduced council tax (apart from the single occupancy one).

The fact it's been going on for so long is significant: I regularly have to confirm my single occupancy status for example.

Keep_pedalling

gwizard98 wrote: »

Secondly - On what planet is 26K high income between two people, and especially enough to have 'significant savings'?? I'm not sure you live in the UK.

£26k if much better than millions of other pensions are surviving on.

Yes I live in the UK and I have a mother who until she went into care got relief on her council tax but her income was limited to the basic state pension alone. As her attorney I have a lot of experience in means tested benefits so I know that there is no way your parents could have got this on their current income, and although I can't believe over their long lifetime they have blown all their income and have less than £16k saved up, but regardless of that speculation, their income alone rules out the benefits they have been receiving.

At some point they would have had to declare all the income and savings, so either they failed to declare it all and/or the council cocked up and paid regardless. The £6k they are being asked to pay back is far less than they have received over the years so overall they have not done to badly out of this.

alewin

The title on this thread should read "Luton Council Attack on Council Tax Reduction Fraud".

agrinnall

kidmugsy wrote: »

Do any posts on this forum with titles like "Luton Council Tax Attack on OAP's!" ever contain anything but drivel?

It's a rare thread with "scam" in the title that actually describes one :cool:.

gwizard98

Thanks for all your help guys. Managed to appeal this succesfully as the council didn't take into account several other factors BR :beer:.