To think this is wrong re Council tax

[Dryjuice25]

I had a letter from the council to say now I will be paying council tax, whereas I didn't have to do this previously as I haven't got gainful employment. I have young children.I also have debts and I'm currently studying for exams.

I feel this is unfair and it's effectively a 10% benefit cut. Anyone agree? I have not seen this on the news so I think it's beingdone sneakily as this might cause an uproar with the unemployed who already live in poverty having their income cut this way whilst big corporations getaway with paying very litle or no tax at all due to various tax loopholes. I have 3 kids and a newborn. I get CTC two of the children and ex claim for one of the children. I am desperate for a job I could ask any mumsnetters to pm me with any flexible or child friendly job offers please and very angry to have my benefit cut in a sneaky way like this and there is nothng I can do about it.

Anyoone got any letters like this?AIBU to be angry about this? I don't mind paying for council tax although its a pain in the bum but dontexpect a tax demand on income support!!

Please flame me not

[LIZS]

The more I think about this , the more I agree the issue is not with the benefits and having to contribute but the fact that you ran up debts, presumably when working , which you can ill afford to service unless you use your redundancy. You need to stop trying to divert attention from the key issue here which is that at some point you and /or ex H have lived beyond your means.

[kinkyfuckery]

I am not going to keep answering the same questions I have already answered as I have already stated my payments in detail.

Have you fuck?! You have lied again and again, and possibly still are. All that just so you can moan about spending a piddly £2.50 a week towards your contribution?
Come back when you actually have something real worth complaining about.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

I have never ever not once had a dig at anybody for being on benefits not once. I often spend hours on threads trying to help people sort out messes with benefits or defending the use of them,I have even sent one of my employes nearly 100 miles to try and help a total stranger who was having issues with ESA.

Most of the posters on this thread doing anything that could constitute anything close to a flaming are on my posters I try to avoid spread sheet,and I expect I'm on there's because I'm a bit of a lefty.

But you know what? They have a point. Your rude and unpleasant.

[TheCalvert]

I really must get a spreadsheet...

[cloudy99]

nickname only mentioned redundancy as op referred to it. No issue with that side of thing. The issue i have is that some claimants in my sisters area could be receiving maybe £250 per week benefits and she has been told she has to subside those claimants from her £71. Whilst I accept costs rise when you have a family but you can also saVe. Plus she has probably worked for 30 years approx and claimed very little back. No children to educate etc so for many years she has been subsidising those with children.

[cloudy99]

Thank you the kids rule

[MummytoKatie]

Ok - I have read the thread and have a job where getting your head round lots of (often contradictory) numerical information is a big part so I'm going to have a go here.....

1. Op has three children - one of which is under 1
   
2. The older two kids live with her 50% of the time and her ex 50% of the time. The baby is with her all the time.
   
3. She gets income support, CTC for two children and CB for 2 children.
   
4. Her ex gets CTC and CB for the other child.
   
5. Her ex doesn't buy anything for the children. (Although presumably feeds them when they are with him.)
   
6. Op gets very annoyed if people haven't read the thread or are a bit confused by it.
   
7. However, Op will not tolerate people making comments she doesn't like and in fact claims she will only read the first sentence of posts she thinks are not helpful to her.
   
8. She is also not happy if people move off the point of the post (which I think is whether or not the unemployed should pay council tax.)
   
9. She has savings which she wants to use for a house deposit although they are now being eroded. I think there is also redundancy money.
   

10. She has a car loan debt and I think debt from a failed business venture.
11. She has cancelled her holiday.
12. The income figures she mentioned do not include CTC or CB as we should know she gets these.
13. She is not willing to say how much her savings are even in order to have other posters comment on whether she is missing out in benefits she is entitled to.


Is this a decent summary Op?

Personally I do have concerns about council tax coming out of benefits. I thought that benefits are assessed to be the minimum a person / family can live on. If so, then we shouldn't be taking some away. If not, then it seems far simpler to cut benefits than to have money going government -> claimant -> council in very small amounts.

[simplesusan]

Everybody, well almost, is feeling the pinch.
Times are very hard.
My c t bill has gone up. My wages have not. Dh, as well as getting a 0% pay rise, has had his bonus level raised to such an extent that he will be approx £300 per month worse off.
On top of all this he has had to sign a contract stating that he will work unpaid overtime when ever his bosses demand him to. Turns out this is every single day.
He is physically exhausted and for what? So that we can stay above the bread line.

I really don't want to pay any more council tax, nobody does, so in fairness I think that everyone should have to pay something no matter how hard it is.

[ShellyBoobs]

OP, YABVU.

[ShellyBoobs]

I thought that benefits are assessed to be the minimum a person / family can live on.

I used to think that too but I don't see how it can be the case given how massive the disparity between what a person without DCs can get compared to someone with DCs.

(Talking about someone being unemployed rather than disabled, etc.)

[itsallyourownfault]

OP, you are possibly the most unreasonable OP I have ever read. And I suggest you don't have any more kids that we taxpayers have to support for you.

[StealthPolarBear]

"I thought that benefits are assessed to be the minimum a person / family can live on"

But presumably this includes paying bills?

[sunshine401]

What is the point of this thread???
Do I think it is fair for people to pay council tax?? Well yes....

[lemuzzy]

Mummy to Katie - thank you for clearing that up. If only the OP could have said that all to begin with!

Op I think Yabvu simply for creating such a misleading thread.

[Bingdweller]

£183 a month council tax here and I work 12 hours per week. Husband hasn't worked in 4 months due to industry being quiet at the moment, this will pick up soon.

Has it even occurred to me that CT shouldn't be paid? Absolutely not. We have cut our cloth accordingly to take account of the situation - sold car, cancelled sky, taken DD out of private nursery, cut shopping bill etc. etc. etc. Our bills take priority.

We are not in the fortunate position as you seem to be of having a large stash of savings we are resentful of using to provide for ourselves.

YABVVVU.

[Purple2012]

As a family with 2 full time workers, on shifts, so hardly seeing each other I resent people like you op who thinks paying. £2.50 a week towards services they use is wrong. You have savings, I don't as I have a house to run, a child to support, I gave up my car and bus it to work as I can't afford for us to run 2 cars. This adds over 2 hours to a 10 hour shift. I am exhausted, I would love to pay so little for council tax.

People like you give people on benefits a bad name with your entitled attitude. I don't begrudge my tax going towards benefits for people who can't work, or are trying to find work, genuine claimants. What I do resent are the people who think the government owes them a living and want to claim when they have savings.

I'd like to bet you have more savings than I do.

[Dryjuice25]

Purple I'm not going to compare my vanishing savings with yours, you have gainful employment, I haven't and I'm desperate to get back on the saddle before I get into further financial ruin.
MummytoKatie thanks for reading it for the benefit of those who like to comment without a fucking clue about what info is already there and hence off tangent. I don't think I should put up with any nasty commments and why should I? My op was not to ask for what I am entitled to in terms of benefit, therefor people like itsallyourownfault are fucking out of order to make such comments.Did she fucking read about my redundancy during pg and studying to better myself and being desperate for a job? I guess not, so get off your fucking very high horse and oh, by the way I have a fucking interview coming up! So wish me fucking luck.

Also I dont need to make anymore disclosured as its unnecessary and I dont need any help with sorting benefits or whatever. And my luckmight change if I handle my interview well. Point of thread was totally missed, so it's now pointless and I won't get back these minutes I've wasted responding to people who post without reading. Fucking pointless really. But hey that's what you get when you put threads up there: All sorts.

Bingdweller Trust me, it's not a large stash anymore. I have had to cut down like you. My car is off the road, cook from scratch, cancelled some of the dcs hobbies and buying off ebay ad infinitum.
Lemuzzy I usually never drip feed.Only this thread took a direction I never anticipated. My issue was with people who will trouble to squeeze the extra. That was the whole fucking point but here we are and there you go

[Dryjuice25]

*any more disclosures
*will have trouble

[LithaR]

I'm disabled with a child under 5 and my council has still decided that we should pay it.

Maybe I deserve it for having the audacity to be born disabled, and the horror of actually breeding. I should clearly have been sterilized to prevent my disabilities being inflicted on the general public any more than they are.

[Dryjuice25]

LithaR I'm Godsmacked by your post.

I'm sure no-one thinks like that about your situation at all. And my OP was meant to have solidarity with the most vulnerable people. I feel ashamed about the decision your council made about your situation as clearly it sounds wrong and you are struggling.And I hate that you are made to feel guilty about claiming benefits or having a dcs. It really breaksmy heart.The benefit system is very devisive as you can see on various insensitive post and a poster told me not to have dcs when I have worked since aged 22 and only recently been made reduntant,studying and applying for jobs but still am supposed to be this benefit monger who should not have kids. Its disgusting.

Not sure how this double posted

[Dryjuice25]

Oops, didnt double post after all

[IneedAsockamnesty]

LithaR

Are you by any chance also caused problems by the changes to under occupancy?

If so you can put a application into the DHF via HB that could bump up your HB a bit. There is bugger all you can do about the ct but if you can get a bit extra from the DHF it will make things easier.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Actually some LA have decided to use the DHF for vulnerable people also towards ct as rather than change the whole main point of the DHF just because of the new rules. Rather than exempt any group from the ct issue at source.

If you have a disability or a child with a disability you will be classed as vulnerable so phone your HB office and ask for a DHF form,when you get it it will be fairly self explanatory but if its not I'm happy to go through it with you.

[LithaR]

Its honestly how i feel at the moment. My house is a two bed housing association so not under occupied. Its just with having my bus pass taken off me due to them wanting to give me another medical. Then benefits office continuously sending me for medicals like they expect me to miraculously get better.

All this on top of many people telling me that I'm a scrounger and a sponger, its been a nightmare. I never wanted this for my life, I was trying to get out of it by studying at college but now they've even removed funding there for mature students. I'm doomed whichever way I try to turn. My house is freezing, I have to decide on whether I should by gas for the meter or buy food for my son. I really don't know what to do anymore, and when they add on council tax I wont be able to pay it. Its too much on top of everything else I have to pay for with being disabled.

I think I need a miracle.