to think not everyone realises that Council Tax Benefit will disappear from April?

[aufaniae]

How this might affect you depends on your postcode as it will be up to councils how they manage the collection of council tax.

For those currently on low incomes - we may well lose Council Tax Benefit all together

Those of you with second homes / empty properties - your local council may decide to do away with discounts. Some are proposing charging double for second homes.

Article here: "The peer who designed the "poll tax" has warned that Council Tax Benefit cuts risk creating a "poll tax Mark 2"."

Each council could do it differently. Do you know what your council is proposing?

Please check what your council's policy is going to be on having a Hardship Fund, and if you need to, get your application in early, as these funds will be cash limited.

Am I right in thinking that by "higher education" they mean uni?

And further education is - what exactly? The kind of stuff you do at an adult education college perhaps - Access Courses and BTECs and the like? Or something else?

Still !

Further education usually means 16-19 and/or education up to and including A level. Higher education is beyond a-level. Think that's about it roughly.

HE means university, FE means college (including sixth form) and the rest.

I think FE students should certainly not be paying CT.

I think if HE students are going to be charged CT, there will be a fall in the numbers of people who can afford to study, and who can afford to study away from home. And there will certainly be a fall in numbers of postgraduates. And none of those things is a good idea for our economy in the long run.

Ive just checked our local councils one. Here all working age claimants will have to pay 20% of their council tax.

Mathscat it sounds like an admin issue that your name is still on the bill. The reason you are not personally liable for ctax but your income affects a benefit claim is because benefit and discount/disregard are a different thing. You are disregarded so your DH should get a discounted bill because of your status. But benefit is means tested, based on household income so your income is counted as well as his. It is possible to be eligible for both discount and benefit on the same bill.

owlface that's not an admin error.

My name appears on our council tax bill even thought the bill is £0! (100% student house).

Currently if a student lives with a non-student, that student is disregarded when they work out the total amount. However that student still has their name on the bill and is just as liable to pay their share of the bill as everyone else in the house.

In reality many shared houses say the student doesn't have to pay as it seems fair, but the non-students would be within their rights to make the student pay an equal share.

It's why we've always shared with other students!

aufaniae yes your name would be on a 0% bill otherwise who would it be addressed to! As I said if students share with non-students they can sort out the bills however they like but from a legal point of view the students are not liable - for example if no one paid the bill the council would not be chasing the students for payment.
By admin error I suppose it is laziness on the council's part not to close an account when someone who was previously liable has a change of status and becomes not liable, as they should open a new account in the name of the liable party.

"if no one paid the bill the council would not be chasing the students for payment."

Please can I ask, where are you getting this from?

Our local council advised us that students are equally liable for the bill if sharing with non-students.

(Perfectly possibly our council told us the wrong thing I suppose!)

www.warwickdc.gov.uk/wdc/your-council/council+tax/eligibility+reductions+and+exemptions/students+liability+for+council+tax.htm

It's possible you were misadvised, there is a lot of duff advice out there for sure!

Ooh, interesting, thanks owlface.

I am annoyed with my local council now! We turned away many non-students who enquired about sharing with us over the last couple of years.

You probably saved yourself some hassle though, as if you live somewhere with several bedrooms the charge would be quite high and the non-students might have a shock at the charge! Which I suppose is why some households share the bill anyway but it seems harsh on the students not to get a brief window of freedom while they can before a lifetime of bills!

I get CT benefit. My full CT is 12% of my entire income. I'll gladly pay the lot when everyone earning over £100000 also pays 12% of their income in CT.

Portrait - working on a £1,000 full ct bill, puts you at around £12,000. Your income tax bill inc NI is around £1,000, or 12 percent.

On £100,000, the income tax and NI come to around 40 percent, so they pay a much higher percentage than you do.

youngermother1 that is just direct tax. Lower earners still pay the same amount on a tank full of petrol that a rich person does, also 20% on most purchases. Although of course the lower earners don't buy as much stuff. I think if we all really work out how much of what we earn is going back to the public purse you will find out it's around 60%.

It's shocking but that is the society we live in, which is fine, if the services are there when you need them. But they aren't. Has hit home here with my DD being the 2012 cohort for university.

I would like to see CT payable on a % of household income too. It won't happen, sadly. The old rating system was fairer. The poll tax was a gift to rich people in big houses and the CT system which replaced it was also geared in their favour.

scrazy - rich people don't necessarily pay more local tax if its based on household income. we live in amongst loads of rich OAP's - far wealthier than we will ever be, who live in 4/5 bed houses. At least with the current rates system they pay a decent amount - with local income tax they would pay practically nothing. And would be subsidised by youngsters who are buying first properties and are totally broke as a result but earn decent wages.

A quick google shows our council is only excluding pensioners from the new rules and that those of working age will be expected to contribute.

I think its fair to expect to contribute to society, particularly as those people currently claiming CTB are more than likely to be using far more services than those who dont qualify. However, its just really the moving round of benefits as those on full benefits will only be using government money to pay the council tax anyway.

However its another step on the right direction to ensuring working always pays.

My council (Derby) hasn't decided. They ran a public consultation this year that ended at the end of last month which explained that pensioners are protected by this move by the rules of Parliament, the amount they are getting from to fund the scheme is 10% less than what they got previously for the Council Tax Benefits, and more than 15000 homes will possibly be affected that they were considering a long list of options. My council's been very vocal on the whole issue of cuts though, running a Fair Derby scheme to consider how to spend their budget, which has amounted to a lot of noise and little show of results or what they are actually planning to do.

Um, 12% of £12k is £1440.

12% of £8.3k, however, is £1k.

Hope you're not an accountant, youngermother!

ugh. Are pensioners discounts means tested? They really ought to be.

I only have one child as its all we could afford to do...in a time when we had work and the child in question didn't need care. Ho hum!

As of March this year I am on full benefits as my job held so much responsibility I could not do it with the level of tiredness I was experiencing.

I've not been told what the contribution will be but am expecting 10% or so....I have always paid my own council tax as when I worked I wasn't entitled to any benefits. As its just me and DS I am happy to make my contribution whatever it might be. The same might not be the case for a family with 4 children who find themselves down on their uppers as so much else is being cut and everything has gone up.

It's a way of increasing taxation for the poorest in society while the richest have taken a cut. So while I will happily pay my co tribute on I will silently cheer on the people and families who say "can't pay so won't pay".

Likewise I think the move housing benefit being paid to the claimant will not work for lots of people .....some are,out of work as they cannot manage basic day to day life stuff. My friends daughter (in her 30s) lives in a supported housing complex and this has caused real headaches for the people who oversee it as its another job they will have to help their clients do.

Spoke to an advisor in the Jobcentreplus who told me these changes were all tried x number of years ago and it didn't work then and won't work now.

written - yes think they are means tested. My IL's are just below the level which enables them to get pension credits and that means they get a vastly reduced council tax.

Council tax is absolutely means tested for pensioners. And it's not that much money you have to have in income or savings to make you ineligible.

My parents are just over the threshold and get no help with anything.

Absolutely JakeBullet. That's why it annoys me when people glibly say oh take away the winter fuel allowance from all pensioners not eligible for pension credit. They don't need it. As if to say all these pensioners who don't qualify for pension credit are rolling in money. Which is totaly untrue.