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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think this is not fair to Single Adult Households?

46 replies

WetAugust · 12/07/2012 17:45

Our Council is one of the many councils that have propsed to abolish Single Adult Discount from April 2013 onwards.

This is a discount of 25% on Council Tax for people who have only one adult living there.

As a result my current Council Tax will increase by a whopping 33% which is almost £28 per month!

That's an outrageous increase! My pay's been frozen for the last 2 years and will remain so - yet I have to fork out an extra £332 per year.

Some of the single adult households affected will be:

single parents
widows / widowers
divorcees
those with children in FE/HE for which they don't receive Family Allowance

OP posts:
OldGreyWiffleTest · 12/07/2012 17:48

Times is 'ard. They're going to do it to me as well. And I'm on the minimum State Pension!

Original poster
WetAugust · 12/07/2012 17:50

No - in our area pensioners are excepted. Pensioners will be subject to the national rules set by the Govt.

OP posts:
pumpkinsweetie · 12/07/2012 17:52

Fwiw i think its absolutely discusting!
My mum is on her own, her wages are shit, because she has no young dcs she gets no help, at the moment she gets 25% off which is of some help but with these new rules she will be even more out of pocketAngry
Imo a single person should only pay half

lunamoon · 12/07/2012 17:55

Yes it is hard but on the other hand you still occupy a house, so there is still a bin to collect still street lighting etc etc.

I feel bitter that as 2 parent family both working, we will not be getting wftc next year. Yet if I was single in then we would. we are expected to live on the same wage as a single parent which is bloody ridiculous

Roseformeplease · 12/07/2012 17:55

But council tax is by the property. The discredited poll tax was by the head (poll) so I am not surprised they are changing this.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 12/07/2012 17:57

This is when all those people who rioted against the poll tax with screams of "unfair" find out what happens when you get what you wish for.

nothingoldcanstay · 12/07/2012 17:58

Really - that's really taking the piss.
It's bad enough that the tax doesn't take into account income I think. It's much harder to claim CT benefit, the threshold is lower than housing benefit for rent and charges those with enough money to buy a house the same as those renting. Shocking tax.

ASillyPhaseIAmGoingThrough · 12/07/2012 18:01

Yanbu

kinkyfuckery · 12/07/2012 18:01

Should I be embarrassed that I hadn't even heard of this? Is there a way to find out if my local council are included?

NarkedRaspberry · 12/07/2012 18:03

That's utterly shitty.

Orwellian · 12/07/2012 18:04

But you get to pay for all the council workers pensions (approx a quarter of council tax). Doesn't that warm the cockles of your heart!?

WinstonWolf · 12/07/2012 18:05

YANBU

sensuallettuce · 12/07/2012 18:05

lunamoon If you are a two parent family both working then how are you living on the same as a single parent family?! Confused

Original poster
WetAugust · 12/07/2012 18:08

Kinky I too hadn't heard of this until today so your council may not have published anything yet.

According to the blurb they sent me it's beacsue the Govt has reduced the grant they have given to councils so councils have to find a way to make up the shortfall.

But before we all blame the Tories, a qick google about it shows it has actually been Labour and Lib Dem policy for several years.

Just think it stinks.

OP posts:
HappyMummyOfOne · 12/07/2012 18:26

Pol tax was much fairer but everyone hated it. A single person may use more rubbish etc than a couple so one set price per person was ideal. Its daft to base on house prices or income as the services are the same regardless of whether you work or not etc.

ImperialBlether · 12/07/2012 18:43

Realistically, how can a single person regularly use more rubbish than a couple?

JuliaScurr · 12/07/2012 18:52

Poll Tax was great - got rid of She Who Must Not Be Named
and then got replaced by (crap) Council Tax, but still...

Morph2 · 12/07/2012 18:55

presuming Happymummyofone means that a single person may use more rubbish than each person in a couple ie. it would be unlikely that a couple would produce twice as much rubbish

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 12/07/2012 19:12

YANBU, it is a lot of money.

But on the other hand, councils tend to pay for things that simply cannot cope without less funding, like children's care homes and adult social services. I'd rather see the single person discount abolished than some of the services the council provide.

Choufleur · 12/07/2012 19:13

The government is devolving council tax benefit (and the 25% discount is actually counted as a benefit) to local authorities so that they can be the man ones and take money away from local people.

Different authorities will be making savings (as they are not getting as much from central government) in different ways. Where I work we are just consulting on the new council tax support system - which is is going to be called - and the 25% single person discount is one of the options. Others include only paying up to 80% of the bill, only paying it to a maximum band B, limiting the time it can be claimed for.

It's shit

ImperialBlether · 12/07/2012 19:17

Are you living in a two wage household, Outraged?

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 12/07/2012 19:21

Yes, but my wage is only little as its part time term time. Why? I have experience of being a single Mum, I made use of that discount for four years before now DH moved in.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 12/07/2012 20:29

I'm not thrilled about this in a selfish way - we get the discount as I'm a student so DH counts as a single occupant for council tax. But I do think it is probably good overall. A single person could be very comfortably off and still getting a discount, and I'd rather it were means-tested. But then I think the whole system is pretty shite - there was an article in the papers a while back, which I won't dig up, but which compared the different amounts of council tax you pay in different areas for similar properties and the differences were really big - and not in line with high rents or anything like that that would make it easier to understand.

NowThenWreck · 12/07/2012 20:40

Oh fuck. I better look into this and find out if it's happening to me. It wouldn't surprise me.
This government seems to be hell bent on victimising the poorer end of society, and when you are a single parent you are already responsible for 100% of the gas bill, the rent/mortgage etc etc ad infinitum.
Two adults in a house pay 50% of the council tax each, so we singles ALREADY pay more than they do at 75%.
And Purlease don't anyone defend the Poll Tax. That meant that a family of, for example, 2 adults and one working 19 year old living in a tiny council house paid the same as one adult in a mansion. That is not OK either.

ImperialBlether · 12/07/2012 20:46

Outraged, but you are saying you would prefer single dwellers/parents make up the shortfall for the council! That's just not fair. Just because you might have been in a position to do so doesn't mean everyone is.

As NowThenWreck says, if you live alone you pay all of the rent/mortgage, all of the heating bills, all of the water bills etc. It's not fair that anyone in that position should pay the same community tax as a working couple.