My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Actually I think you paid £1658 for 2020/2021? 9 months at £156 and 2 at £127 when presumably you got the single persons discount as your DD was away at Uni. Are you Band E? I am assuming your original council tax bill was worked out with a single person discount (25%) and then when your DD finished Uni they had to claim the discount back over the remainder of the year and they spread it over 9 months rather than 8 to keep the monthly payment lower.  Confusing way of doing it but I suppose the object was to stop the monthly payment going up considerably.  

Why do they claim the discount back,what's the point of giving it if they are going to claim it back or am i not understanding what you mean 

Onebrokelady

DD 1 says I should have been paying £169 last year for a band C house so that's why they took a payment in February to cover the shortfall 🤷‍♀️I'm still confused, my neighbour messaged me to say that £178 a month is the correct amount for our houses, but he lives on his own so I'm not sure why he is paying full rate  

Onebrokelady

welshspendthrift said:

@Onebrokelady our council tax has gone up by £5 a month so £50 more! Not sure what we are getting for that except that the free green bin now has to be paid to be collected! So OH says he will make a compost bin 😀 as refuse to pay. 

I'm not sure what we are getting for £178 a month, a friend who lives in a band B house says hers has only gone up by £5 but I don't know if she is on any benefits,or if the price increase is less for a lower band

Onebrokelady

I am going to have to sit down and work out a new budget as soon as my water charges come in. So far I have to find an extra £20 for council tax and £10 for gas and electric,I think that's going up again soon as I got a letter from EDF warning of price rises.....good job I'm getting my 1% pay rise this year 🙀

 

enthusiasticsaver

Onebrokelady said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Onebrokelady said:

Omg I've just got my council tax bill and it's gone up by £20 a month 🙀🙀🙀 I've phoned the council and spoke to a lady who says it's correct. She said it's only gone up by 5% bit I was only paying £156 last year, she kept going on about me getting a discount for the first two months of last year because DD was a student until June,then my bill was altered from June when she finished uni, that's apparently why I paid an extra payment in February or my monthly payments last year would have been more. I don't understand what she was trying to explain 😟

Actually I think you paid £1658 for 2020/2021? 9 months at £156 and 2 at £127 when presumably you got the single persons discount as your DD was away at Uni. Are you Band E? I am assuming your original council tax bill was worked out with a single person discount (25%) and then when your DD finished Uni they had to claim the discount back over the remainder of the year and they spread it over 9 months rather than 8 to keep the monthly payment lower.  Confusing way of doing it but I suppose the object was to stop the monthly payment going up considerably.  

Why do they claim the discount back,what's the point of giving it if they are going to claim it back or am i not understanding what you mean 

The discount is worked out in March  for the whole year on the assumption that you were the sole occupant for the whole year and the monthly payments  should reflect that.  When your DD finished Uni the period from then until 31 March then became fully chargeable (with no discount) which increased your council tax bill from June to March .  You should be able to go online to the council website and check you are paying the correct amount for a Band C house.  A simple way to work it out is to find the full amount of council tax for the year for last year, deduct the 25% for just the period you were entitled to it (so presumably 1.4.20 until 31.5.20?) so 2 months in other words and see how that compares to what you actually paid. 

enthusiasticsaver

Onebrokelady said:

DD 1 says I should have been paying £169 last year for a band C house so that's why they took a payment in February to cover the shortfall 🤷‍♀️I'm still confused, my neighbour messaged me to say that £178 a month is the correct amount for our houses, but he lives on his own so I'm not sure why he is paying full rate  

Maybe he doesn't realise he can claim the single persons discount?  They don't give it automatically as far as I know. 

alt80

FML you've just made me check my council tax for 21-22 up to £3060 from £2945 the !!!!!! think I'm !!!!!! made of money. Hate paying it def get no value from it apart from my bins taken pay for that sep at comm office would happily take my bins there to be emptied if no council tax on res home. Robbing !!!!!! !!!!!!. 

Cherryfudge

We've been hit with CT too but... someone has to pay for the Police, fire brigade, bins, emergency planning, recycling centre/tip (and clearing up fly tipping), swimming baths, skate park, libraries, children's play areas... and if an elderly person develops dementia and has to be sectioned for their own safety, their care for the rest of their life comes out of Council Tax too.
We moan about it but we'd have to pay privately if it weren't available, and I'm sure that wouldn't come cheap.

enthusiasticsaver

Onebrokelady said:

welshspendthrift said:

@Onebrokelady our council tax has gone up by £5 a month so £50 more! Not sure what we are getting for that except that the free green bin now has to be paid to be collected! So OH says he will make a compost bin 😀 as refuse to pay. 

I'm not sure what we are getting for £178 a month, a friend who lives in a band B house says hers has only gone up by £5 but I don't know if she is on any benefits,or if the price increase is less for a lower band

Yours looks high for a Band C but I don't know what authority you are under. You are presumably under Devon but the town or city you live in also takes their cut. We come under Cornwall and last year paid £205 for 10 months for a Band D house. This year is £212 per month as far as I can gauge from website. I think your partial single person discount last year has confused matters. Maybe your friend who pays less gets some council tax benefits or the single person discount? Annoying when salaries are not going up by 5%

enthusiasticsaver

@Cherryfudge is right the Councils do more than sort out rubbish and recycling. Libraries, police, street cleaning, elderly social care, parks and of course if there are more unemployed people there are less people to actually pay the bill. @alt80 this is the disadvantage of living in an expensive  house. They assume because you can afford the more expensive house you can afford more council tax. It is a tax rather than a service charge.