council tax consultation

It's unfair that the council will give as much weight to the opinions of people who get discounts or council tax benefit as they will to those who have to pay it in full.

If you don't pay your own council tax in full, you really shouldn't be entitled to an opinion on this subject.

If I were asked, which I probably won't be as I live in a tory area, I would say benefits and discounts need to be cut before we start asking people who are already paying their fair share (or more) to suffer an increase.

A 1.7% increase doesn't seem to be unreasonable to me.

It's not absolving them from responsibility, it's canvassing opinion referendum style. Your opinion is that they should cut council tax benefit so that you and others don't have to pay more. Other people may be happy to pay a bit extra so that those on benefits don't have to. Isn't that sort of how local democracy is supposed to work?

Gosh - how would you answer, Cogito?

We've had one too. It's a national survey, I think, linked to the fact council tax benefit will no longer be subsidised by national government.

As I understand it, local councils get a grant for the difference between everyone paying full council tax and people claiming a reduced rate at the moment iykwim. The grant they get from April will be cut, so councils have to work council tax differently or make cuts to other services to make up the difference.

We have a Labour council so they being quite forthright about what's going on. I can imagine conservative councils can't

i do think there's sense in stopping the single person discount, especially where one person lives in a large 3+ bedroom house. 2 of my neighbours live in 4 bed houses by themselves which doesn't seem a very good use of the limited housing stock

Ours is asking if we want them to charge people with second properties/people who own empty homes more.

we've been asked the same in previous years. like you i think paying over 2.5k is a bit much. we've looked into discounts for a club i run and came to the conclusion that almost any group of people claim they should get them - currently its OAP's who obviously tend to get the most, but where i live they generally seem to be the wealthiest with least essential outgoings.

i said they ought to become more efficient in the way they deliver services.

why should you have to pay anymore - 2.5K is alot of money. it does sound like emotional blackmail.

also some of the people getting discounts may not necessarily be on benefits but to me it has always seemed like some people are subsidising others who could make more of a contribution but don't.

It's not absolving them from responsibility, it's canvassing opinion referendum style. Your opinion is that they should cut council tax benefit so that you and others don't have to pay more. Other people may be happy to pay a bit extra so that those on benefits don't have to. Isn't that sort of how local democracy is supposed to work?

Well firstly this isn't AIBU so YABU to ask.

That said I guess the council's intention is to see what their constituents think which is fair enough but I'm a bit about the questionnaire and who it goes to.

The problem with council tax is only a minority of people are responsible for paying it whilst every adult can vote. So what you will end up finding is many people will vote for the increase because it doesn't affect them.