Cut benefits before increasing council tax

People working with dc in London often stretch to buy a house. It’s expensive.

I don’t blame the op for not wanting to be hit with more taxes.

Yep I’m applying your empathy to those in Kent voting Reform too - cuts in lots of areas , council tax up to the maximum

Exactly and I know where my sympathy lies.

There are 32 Boroughs in London. Most of them have considerably higher Council Tax than Westminster.

If you're asking about the universal credit rates you can google that too - my figures were slightly out of date but not too much

www.gov.uk/universal-credit/what-youll-get

The question is, did you vote Labour, if you did you get everything you deserve.

Cutting the ‘flash cars’ on the mutability scheme would save precisely nothing. The Motability scheme is paid for by individuals using their higher rate PIP, plus sometimes an upfront payment, to lease a car. It doesn’t matter what the car is, the PIP cost to the government is what’s important. So to save money you have to reduce PIP for all claimants, or at least reduce the higher rate PIP as I think that’s what’s required to access the Motability scheme.

In case anyone needs it clarifying:

Widdlin' qualifies for the mobility part of PIP. She gets £300 a month for this.

Widdlin' can choose to spend that on taxis, buses, a wheelchair, a scooter, on anything that helps her get around really.

She chooses to spend it on a car lease via the Motability Scheme.

She looks at the scheme and finds the only vehicle her wheelchair will fit in is a WAV, a Citroen Spacehopper (Spacetourer) which is massive and has a 5K advanced fee, plus adaptations cost which she doesn't yet know.

She cannot use taxis, there are none in her small town or slightly larger nearby city that can take her powerchair.
She can use the train, but only to get to Very Large City which she rarely needs to go to. The station in Slightly Larger City is not accessible for her chair. Therefore the Spacehopper is really the sensible option unless Widdlin' intends to never go further than Aldi's down the road.

Over the five year lease, Widdlin's Spacehopper is going to cost her at LEAST 23K, vs not having the Spacehopper (not including the adaptations fee which was several more K because its a lowered floor, winch, ramp, tie down points, different seat belt set up).

After 5 years, Widdlin has to do it all over again.

If Widdlin' chooses not to have the Spacehopper, she will still be in receipt of the mobility part of PIP because she is still a big fat cripple. So the cost to the taxpayer will not reduce if Widdlin' does not have the Spacehopper.

Please explain where that buys Widdlin' a car, or where that car is free to Widdlin'.

(figures not quite accurate i have better things to do than go look up the exact numbers. By 'cost her' Widdlin is aware that some will argue this isn't 'her' money it's the governments and thus the taxpayers but this is money the government currently says Widdlin' is entitled to and at the point of choosing whether to use it via the motability scheme or spaff it on cake, it is Widdlin's money because it's in Widdlin's bank account!)

There wasn’t meant to be more tax rises after the last budget so I get why people are annoyed.

Don't be talking sense now.

You can google - it's easy
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/help-for-disabled-travellers1/motability-scheme/getting-a-motability-car/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23139573802&gbraid=0AAAAA-Td8Vvll67MoqOx87yoLNW6PaZpH&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5uDIBhDAARIsAOxj0CHQR2mzDnaqWNWjptzrP2Rhwd89h1uBPHg8dgKv5HNY5yFEJTEc9WUaAhECEALw_wcB

If you receive a benefit because you have a disability or illness that makes it hard for you to get around, you can use it to pay for a vehicle from a charity called Motability.

You’ll only be paying for the lease of the vehicle - it won’t belong to you. If you stop receiving your benefit, you’ll have to return it.

Your benefit will go directly to the Motability Scheme each month to pay for your lease. How much of your benefit will go towards your vehicle will depend on which one you choose.

You’ll probably need to make a payment upfront if you choose a more expensive vehicle.

Well it is usually an essential to have a roof over one's head. This Woman's husband going to work is part of that. And the recipient of Motability does not have to be able to drive all the time, or even at all. Read up on it perhaps...

And Londoners get good public services.

I think you could do away with anxiety for PIP and that would cut loads. I'd be okay with this. I've had severe anxiety myself. It's not something that can opt you out of work. It's a normal part of life that we all have to deal with.

I know people who receive PIP often work, but if you can top up your wages with PIP, it's about £400/month, it means people can claim anxiety and get that top up so they then don't work those extra hours and pay that extra tax.

Do you honestly think people with disabilities on non-means tested benefits are tearing around jn free Mercedes?

If you want to push the personal responsibility agenda, then you shouldn't have bought a house where a £100 a month increase in bills would tip you over the edge.

That poster is a fool then as she is losing the equivalent of those car payments from her PIP which could be used for something that directly benefits her. I'd be concerned about financial abuse actually if she's sacrificing her disability benefits to lease a car for her husband's benefit! But you do realise she's not getting any more by using the motability scheme than she would be if she wasn't?

The same as us. I think our house is only bang F because all the listed buildings in our area were given band F back in the 70s.

Did you this last month OP?
Or just when the plans look look like affecting you? Would you be OK if the ceiling was set at the band above you?

How do I know what you post is true

I'm pretty sure the Motability scheme is propping up the new car market at the moment, as well as that of the EV market. The whole thing wreaks of state-level fraud.

"I have narcolepsy and fall asleep on the bus, give me a free car." - True story.
www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/12/drivers-sleeping-disorders-subsidised-cars-scheme/

Hit the nail on the head.

I don't choose to be autistic and burn out easily. My mum didn't choose to HAVE to be medically retired from work, and my son didn't choose to be autistic either.

I appreciate that some autistic people are able to work, but unfortunately, I am not one of them. I couldn't even deal with uni 2 days a week, and that was recent. I had to drop out after 6 months, and I only lasted that long because I felt like I'd be letting people down if I continued.

I'd LOVE to work. But I just can't.

OP, please don't take Reddit posts as fact. I use Reddit, and I can smell most bullshit posts a mile off. I bet the one you read was complete bullshit

Goady McGoadface.

That's the thing though. A lot of houses in Band F and even higher aren't expensive mansions. But no-one could foresee their council tax getting randomly doubled - it's a huge hike.

I'm in Band F and my house is worth less than a 1 bed flat in London.

Oh well if a poster on Reddit said so it must be true!
There's nowhere for benefits to be cut further. Universal credit is £290 a month per adult for their living costs and about £400 for a child. Rent can be claimed towards as well but unless someone is on a very old council tenancy their benefits will not cover their rent so they have to top it up from that meagre living cost sum.
In relation to disability benefits - it's extremely difficult to scam DLA/PIP. More people don't claim them when they are entitled than claim fraudulently. The vehicles are paid for out of the disability benefit. So what a person receives is docked by the monthly hire cost of the car. Yes they may be expensive cars but often they need to be adapted because - you know - disability?

Where you live enough houses sell for you to have a good idea what they are worth. Where we live we have no idea. There aren’t enough houses and there are years where nothing sells. Our house is really old and pretty, but we have no central heating. When we bought the house it had been in the market for 4 years and come down in asking price by 30%. We knocked another 10% off because it had a crack in the stone wall that was letting damp in and needed fixing. I can well see an estate agent valuing our house at a price no one would buy it at, especially holidaymakers, as they might have to pay quadruple council tax. I like my home and I don’t plan to move, but I think it’s in sellable in the current market.