To be cranky about the £150 council tax rebate

[Notcontent]

I have been thinking a lot about this. I understand that the government was looking for a way to implement help with energy costs in the easiest way possible and that doing it through council tax bands seemed sensible as for the most part it does target the right people. But only for the most part. For example, in London there are lots of people who live in high value properties that are actually far from luxurious and who will miss out. For example, my elderly neighbour will miss out even though he deserves the help. He doesn’t have a lot of money - bought his house decades ago when the area was very cheap and lives very frugally. I know councils will get some extra money to distribute but that will be for only a small number of people.

These kinds of injustices really get to me, as I think when it comes to public money everyone should get equal treatment.

I'm band C but the £150 is neither here nor there as we do ok income wise. I'd rather the money went elsewhere. Considering donating it to the food bank tbh.

Not rich but not poor either, but we don't have to worry about money as long as we are sensible and don't want big holidays and expensive gadgets.

To me these price increases mean I can reduce my hours like I planned which is frustrating as my mental health needs it, but I'm in a lucky position that I was even thinking of it.

Could he eat less avocado op? It's supposed to work for young people priced out of the property market so might help for him too

He will have to make better choices like us poor people are told to.

@DaphneBasset

From the sounds of it, your neighbour's house has hugely appreciated in value. He may have little in the way of cash but it sounds like he has decent wealth. He can downsize anytime he wants. No, I don't feel sorry for him!!

Not that straightforward for the elderly to move though. It can shorten their lives, especially if it's not something they want to do.

And it is unfair. We'll get nothing and there are people with considerably higher incomes than us who will get it. And we're stuck where we are, can't move for various reasons.

The situation you describe is similar all over the UK! We live on the SC band D property .Our Council Tax bill is £1700 per year.Your NDN is sitting pretty in a valuable home . Young families or first time buyers are bring squeezed until their pips squeak .He has the option of moving ,or staying put and cutting back here and there .Families will find that much harder to do .

YANBU OP.

I think I will benefit from this council tax discount so I’m not going to complain about about it, but reading some of the responses on here I find it sad that so many people are so small minded that they can’t find any sympathy for a single elderly man who is struggling with the cost of living just because he happens to own his house. In day to day life he’s no better off than if he lived in a council house that’s paid for by housing benefit. In fact he’s probably worse of as he doesn’t have a landlord to pay for any maintenance problems. It’s not that easy to just up and downsize, especially if you’re on a low income and don’t have help. People’s jealousy of him owning a house in London is completely misguided.

We are band c on the Isle of Wight and pay around £2100 per annum. IoW has ludicrously poor services compared to a lot of places, compare that to Chelsea!

@ToastieSnowy

If he can’t afford it then he needs to sell his expensive home and downsize/ move location just like the rest of us would have to do.

How about being in one of the most deprived wards in the country yet paying one of the most expensive council tax. There’s quite a few areas of the country who pay far far more than the expensive London boroughs. For example while those in City of London pay £1049 a year council tax (band D), Wandsworth & Westminster pay even less than that. Kensington & Chelsea is £1331.

Yet Middlesbrough pay £2104, Gateshead £2145 and County Durham with all the old pit villages about the same.

Let’s start with equality in council tax payments first eh.

Wolverhampton Band D £2006

Band A £1337

Burnley Band D £2067

Band A £1391

If I couldn't afford to heat my home or feed myself to that extent the first thing to go would be my top end postcode house that I was extremely lucky to own.......if he isn't even willing to downsize than more fool him. He'd have benefitted when buying the place at prices that familis today couldn't even dream of.

I'm a single mother, full time student and work part time. I'm skint but I don't have to pay council tax so absolutely no benefit to me. I'll still be sat in a freezing house.

The council tax bands were set in 1990

A being the cheapest, then through to D being middle of the range and where the £150 rebate finishes

E-G are bands for those that are more expensive homes and we’re back in the 1980s

If as an OAP you fall into a poverty situation you live in a house in E band, you have a choice of downsizing

Our band E ismall 4 bed was £2600 last year. Dread to think what it will be this year.

I'm in the North East am disgusted that we pay such high charges compared to London boroughs when the average wage is a fraction.

Council tax isn’t based on wages, that’s the problem with it. I agree with others that the whole system needs a reform, but to complain about it because wages are higher in London than they are in the North is silly. More places exist in this country than London and ‘the North’ and the vast majority of people down south don’t get the London weighting. Those that do need it get it because their expenses are genuine higher. Otherwise wages really aren’t that different for the majority.

Your neighbour has the.choice to downsize, most people in the North don't have the choice the earn more as there is a wage ceiling

There is a wage ceiling everywhere depending on how qualified an individual is and how much they are capable of earning. A family with two working age adults in the north have more chance of increasing their income than an elderly pensioner in London. And northern homeowners have exactly the same choice to downsize if they can’t afford life.

1990 the Tory government tried to equal out the rates by introducing Poll tax with the idea every person paid the same amount £200 a year

The protests were Hugh

As suddenly a two up two down with 4 adults would be paying £800 between them

And a large detached with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and 2 adults with an empty nest would be paying £400 - half the terraced house

There were riots

Council house tenants pay council tax fgs.

No wonder councils get away with the shit they do if this thread is anything to go by: half the people on it don't understand how council tax works.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_riots

The advent of the poll tax was due to an effort to alter the way the tax system was used to fund local government in the UK. The system in place until this time was called "rates" and had been in place in some form from the beginning of the 17th century.[1] The rates system has been described as "a levy on property, which in modern times saw each taxpayer paying a rate based on the estimated rental value of their home".[1]

The Thatcher government had long promised to replace domestic rates, which were unpopular, especially among Conservative voters. They were seen by many as an unfair way of raising revenue for local councils.[2] It was levied on houses rather than people.[2]

The proposed replacement was a flat-rate per capita Community Charge—"a head tax that saw every adult pay a fixed rate amount set by their local authority".[1] The new Charge was widely called a "poll tax" and was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales a year later.[3] The Charge proved extremely unpopular; while students and the registered unemployed had to pay 20%, some large families occupying relatively small houses saw their charges go up considerably, and the tax was thus accused of saving the rich money and moving the expenses onto the poor.[4]

Just me who can always tell a @Tealightsandd post before I've looked at the poster?? 🙄

Yes, poor London. My heart bleeds for people sitting in million pound houses they couldn't possibly sell because they don't want to move (like the rest of the country has to).

You honestly think people aren't being denied services and forced out of their local areas up and down the entire country?

The only difference is they don't have million pound budgets to do it with.

The housing crisis is - to some degree- caused by people not moving to smaller properties once they no longer need a large house.

I do understand that it's hard to move once elderly, but there was the option of moving before that point. Or if he's strapped for cash he can do equity release on the property - and yes he'll get shortchanged on that but better than going cold and hungry if that's his choice.
Or he could rent out part of the property.

He has options, in a way that a person who does not own an expensive house does not. If he chooses not to take those options because he wants to leave the property as his inheritance, that's on him. If it's because he's not able to go through the necessary steps then suggest he contacts Age Concern who may be able to provide some support.

But if they give it to everyone equally people would complain about the ones who do not need it.

Well the government isnt trying to help anyone they are making it look like they are.
Most of it will end up in their mates back pockets

We are by far the smallest house in our road - yet 4 houses pay a lower band, despite humungous extensions, and the one that's the same band is almost exactly twice as big

Ariela You can look on Martin Lewis website for how to challenge this situation

A family with two working age adults in the north have more chance of increasing their income than an elderly pensioner in London

But they won't be any better off if childcare and travel to work take all their extra wages.

And northern homeowners have exactly the same choice to downsize if they can’t afford life

They really don't because if your house is worth £150k you can't free up hundreds of thousands of pounds by buying in a cheaper area like you can if your property is worth £500k+.

Someone who owns a London property outright is in a pretty priviledged position even if they are cash poor, and the OPs neighbour might not even be that poor, even if he looks poor because he doesn't appear to spend any money. Many older people have good pensions and lots of savings, but won't spend it.

But in any case, he can release some of his equity if he doesn't want to move. It's nowhere near as bad a deal as it used to be and the value is just sitting there available to him to supplement his income if he needs it.

@Ponoka7 you are quite wrong about the sort of person you think I am and I also don’t think you understand the point I am making. The point I am making is that lots of the people who will be receiving the rebate don’t actually need it - but they are getting it nonetheless when people who have much less income are not going to get it.

A relative lived in a house in London for over 50 years. Claimed for years he didn’t have any money, refused to move due to the house being in a terrible state (no money or inclination to repair it supposedly).

I was part of the team who helped him to move to a home, the house had to be cleared and put on the market. I was STAGGERED at his wealth. All those years with plenty of choices yet he CHOSE to live. Very desirable part of London. Lots of neighbours slightly younger than him making the same choices.

The point I am trying to make is that there are choices for the vast majority of us. We just choose not to take some of them and keep things as is. Much easier in my relatives case!

I think the general consensus would be that if someone lives in a Band E property, and who are probably paying the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment for their council tax, that they are probably not going to be struggling financially. I’m glad though that this is probably also going to help those people who live modestly, but don’t get any financial help normally as they may be just outside the criteria for getting help.