Abolishing single person CT discount

It’s neither, because it’s made up nonsense.

This isn't a war on pensioners or a war on women.

This is difficult decisions needing to be made because the tories left us in such a mess

Also a war on women.

It will disproportionately affect women. Stastically more likely to be victims of DV (a common reason for being single), and also I think statistics have found that single women pensioners are one of the poorest groups in society.

It's all part of the Labour war on pensioners. A bereaved widow(er) will face a rise in council tax under this despite losing income from the bereavement and using less services. Pensioners can't work to make up the shortfall. Pensioners predominantly have voted Conservative so presumably this is part of Labour's punishment for them.

Im a single parent, I do use a fair whack of council resources. Rural so my kids get picked up by school minibuses which cost a fair bit. We produce more waste than a single person although I recycle everything possible./ separate out the food waste. I do get a small council tax reduction as I claim UC despite working full time. Everyone always thinks of Tesco et al not paying living wages but often LA don’t either.

Many councils are completely irresponsible with their money, 4 have gone ‘bust’ in the past 18 months. Their spending needs to be looked at before we start taxing people, single people especially, even more.

Bad policy IMO.

It’s already very very expensive to live alone - this makes that worse. Including for single parents, single pensioners etc.

I agree making it per adult would probably be better - as households with more people will use more services.

It never quite made sense to me that a HMO with 5 people pays the same council tax as everyone else given the additional pressure on local services this creates.

We are getting into poll tax territory then though.

I get benefits and I do not get a council tax reduction, all councils have different thresholds for this.

Yes. But not asking single people - single parents in particular- to fill the gap!

CT should really be per adult anyway, not per household. It’s ridiculous that the burden already falls disproportionately on single people living alone or with children.

Exactly

I'm a leftie ....so I suppose in the current political arena , I'm probably a Lib Dem rather than a Labour voter, but I was very excited to get the Toeies out and Labour in and I voted for Starmer this time

And so far.....a LABOUR government has removed the winter fuel allowance for those who can't work out how / are too ill / are too lazy to apply for pension credit AND those just above that threshold. Historically those in the Labour fold

And NOW they are going for the single dwellers

Fucking hell.... what happened to taxing the billionaires and the oil companies ?

And .....and this is totally against my leftie principles....what happened to cutting the overseas aid whilst we put our internal housekeeping right?

I am fuming at how I've been duped by fucking Labour. FUMING

My bad, I know, and I despise the Tories so I am glad they've gone.

But wtf is Starmer thinking?

And breathe

I had not heard this but I think there might be a real chance they will scrap the maximum increase of 5% a year that councils can raise CT? Until Rachel Reeves actually presents the budget it’s all speculation.

But councils need more money as there are bugger all services left. Where we lived the first £30k you earn is taxed by the local council and nationwide tax doesn’t kick in until £60k- each council can set local tax within a sliding scale of around 28-32% it gives them flexibility.

I was shocked how the winter fuel allowance was scrapped. The bar for a rich pensioner was set very low and if a person was a few quid over the fuel allowance it just stopped. Maybe a sliding scale so if a person is £2 over you get winter fuel allowance minus £6 or something like that- not just a cliff edge that will leave some low income pensions in a very difficult situation this winter.

I don’t live in the UK I live in the EU but can still vote and it was very difficult as I didn’t trust any party. But seeing as labour said they would not raise NI etc I think we will see some surprising changes.

We had planned on investing further in the UK but have decided against it and will use the money to buy different assets in the EU. I feel neither labour or conservatives are coherent. I think now labour is in power we will start seeing their internal party divides too.

And then you think, well look at the last 14 years could it be worst.

Well yes. Though a single person with kids is certainly using more council services than a single person with no kids. According to your argument should people with kids pay more than those without kids? Would you support it being based upon the number of people at the address, regardless of whether they are children or not?
And to add to @Chubbys point, couples don’t get to only split council tax bills; they get to split all other bills too.

I am so worried about this. I know so many people (family included) who would be really affected by this. They are are not on great wage, but can't get UC top ups. They will be paying about £40pm extra if this comes in, and they simply can't afford it.
My own DB is expressing very worrying thoughts about how he just can't afford to live anymore, so what is the point.

The 25% off council tax as a single person isn’t the some bargain people think it is. If there were two adults in a house they’d be paying 50% each council tax.

A single person pays 75%, they’re still worse off.

Well, rates depended on the estimated rental income from the property. OK in principal, but if you have an elderly person whose family has moved out and doesn't want to leave their home...

I agree. I used to think I was the only person who thought that. I've always thought it was fairer (although, and I'm too young to remember it, the older rates system sounded even better).

I'm married in a double income household with DC but am able to recognise how unfairly single parents and single childless/child free are treated.

Bring back poll tax. I always thought that was fair. If you are earning, contribute to the area in which you live.

But the frothers use every opportunity to froth.

Ah, yes, the two financial options: rolling in money or on benefits.

I hope you're right OP about just stirring the pot.

I've just been talking about this on another thread. Another poster pointed out how that would very likely increase DV incidents. It's already financially hard for victims if they leave. Not to mention the difficulty in the single income cost of living, which often pushes people to move in together too soon - which increases DV risks. And the government talk about taking VAWG seriously...

Terrible idea that will hurt single parents (including DV victims), and other vulnerable groups - the disabled, elderly widows or widowers on not much above pension credit threshold, and single low waged workers.

It's worth bearing in mind that council tax benefits were scrapped about 10 years ago. Now, although there's still a discount for people on income based benefits and some local authorities still give a full discount, others only do a partial amount. If the single person discount is scrapped, that's going to further harm many of the poorest and most vulnerable.

I don't claim benefits, I work full time. I live alone. In a 1.5 bed flat - rented - my office is in the spare box room as I WFH mostly, my organisation doesn't have an office. The amount of council services I use equates to one person's usage. There is a family living in the same-sized flat in my block who use more of the council's services. But you think I should pay the same as them because I am not on benefits? Surely it's fairer to pay for what I use? That's why the discount exists. Expecting me to pay for stuff I don't use and subsidise others is fairly unequal - the benefits argument doesn't work. And that discount means A LOT to me, I work for a charity, I'm not rolling in the dough.

It is very crudely means tested in that it is linked to the value of the house and although someone earning £100k might live next door to someone on 30k the chances are that at some point the person on 100k will move to a more expensive house and hence pay more CT.

Well you’d just charge full rate to everyone and those claiming benefits would get a reduction just like now.

Or look at in the opposite direction, why should a single person with no children earning less than the minimum wage pay the same as a couple earning 100k jointly? You can cut the cake many ways... and many have tried to - poll tax for example.