To be pissed off we won’t get the £150 rebate

[Usererror1999]

I feel like the rebate is giving with one hand and taking with the other. But now I also realise that as we are in band E: we aren’t getting the rebate at all! So it’s just “take” from us. We already pay a higher amount of council tax and we aren’t high users of council services

We aren’t rich: but we do have a fairly decent house that we make other sacrifices to afford. We work hard and pay into a pension and pay off our mortgage in the hope that we’re fairly self sufficient in old age. This just feels like a bit of a slap in the face.

@Tilltheend99 @SpaghettiArmsMurderer

Thanks! Wasn’t planning on a fire but who knows. If only pas as you use existed?

I have enough paying back my student loan (that the bas**rds are still adding interest too). It’s just so frustrating to feel like I pay so much tax when others make full use of a system that they never pay into.

Can’t wait to fully qualify and go to work in Dubai for a year… bye bye mortgage it really seems like the only option for financial security.

My council tax is set to increase 3% this year- the £150 will mean I don’t feel the increase but I won’t feel the benefit either.

as it is literally a tax on being allowed to use your vehicle on the public roads

No, it’s an externality tax - it’s a tax on emissions produced by your vehicle. Low/no emissions cars like electric cars don’t pay it.

@Leilala I have massive student loans too, in fact I have the double whammy of a plan 2 loan and a postgrad loan which are repaid concurrently at different rates. But I value living in a civilised society so I don’t mind paying taxes for public goods.

@VictoriaBlossom yeah the food waste collection is great! I’m pretty sure they use it to power local buses

No, it’s an externality tax - it’s a tax on emissions produced by your vehicle. Low/no emissions cars like electric cars don’t pay it.

Yes, the amount of the tax is determined by the vehicle's emissions (and may indeed be £0, which is still technically an amount), but the tax is only payable in order for you to be allowed to use it on the public roads. You could have the biggest, oldest, dirtiest, most polluting jalopy ever and you still wouldn't have to pay VED if it never left your own private property, however much you drove it (if you lived on a big farm or whatever).

@Usererror1999

It just seems irrational that only bands A-D are getting this rebate. Someone could earn £100k and live in a band D home, whereas someone else could earn £20k and live in a band E home

I live in a band G home. It's flat pack housing association.

No less than a month's council tax rebate for me because I was stupid enough to need a disabled accessible property, so had to move into a new build rather than the huge victorian villas opposite which are in band B.

Op with a very low morgage and a £55k gross household income you are not choosing between heating and eating!
You do not need the £150 rebate you are just miffed on principal.

Isn’t the £150 supposed to be for people who are struggling? And you’re not. So have this

How about you be grateful for what you have, how you have gone through the pandemic in a house with a garden, how you have not had to isolate for two or more weeks at a time in a flat with no access to the outdoors.

Try living in a 5 room flat (2 bed, living room bathroom and kitchen) with autistic children who can't go out for 10 or 14 days at time. DS missed 6 weeks of school in one term, isolating at various times in one term so did a lot of being stuck inside. He has just done another 4 day stint waiting for results.

Would rather not have the £150 and have Access to our own garden/yard

Now £150 is not that much to not get for the benefits of a band E home.

@DrManhattan

£150 is fuck all to people on £100k a year, with a massive house, yet there will be people moaning about it. Genuinely don't get it.

I see people saying they’re on £200K per year (couple) and they might as well be saying £2 billion, it all seems the same fantasy to me! As a care worker getting basic minimum wage for night shifts, weekends, I don’t understand it either.

@MyDcAreMarvel my mortgage isn’t that low (think £1k per month). But you’re right it’s the principle. The fact that lots of other people who don’t need the rebate are getting it. I don’t actually begrudge those who do need it. But 75 % of the population are getting it: and many, many of those will be in less need of it than we are .

@Lalliella I don’t begrudge those genuinely struggling. But lots and lots of those on bands A -D will be financially better off than we are.

@BlackeyedSusan I do have sympathy for your situation. But we too have had to home school our child various points throughout the pandemic and isolation while working from home at the same time, and it’s been bloody awful

My ECP is band E, it’s not so bad after all 😭

*EPC, even

I think you missed Susan’s point, OP. House arrest when you have a garden is not the same as house arrest in a flat.

I'm band C and I won't get the rebate... because I'm in Wales

I also won't get the £200 energy loan thing because I'm in Wales and not on benefits

Go figure

If you are in a Band E house you have a house that is worth a lot. I really don't feel any sympathy that you won't get a rebate.

@Monopolyiscrap and there will be loads of other people who have houses worth more than ours, and have loads more disposable income who are getting the rebate and don’t need it either: that’s what’s pissing me off: hot people who have a choice between heating or eating

Theres no way you pay a 1k mortgage on a 200k house.

I say that because I had a 200k house a few years back as a FTB and paid nearer 600.

If you do, you need to get that sorted. Thats £400 a month! Way bigger saving than a one off £150

@LemonSwan I’ve probably got a shorter length of mortgage than you do. It depends on the term of the mortgage

@Usererror1999 If your house is in Band E, it is worth a lot. If you can't afford to buy your house, then sell it.

@Usererror1999 then a short mortgage term is a choice

"We aren’t rich: but we do have a fairly decent house that we make other sacrifices to afford. We work hard and pay into a pension and pay off our mortgage in the hope that we’re fairly self sufficient in old age. This just feels like a bit of a slap in the face."

All this stuff about working hard and making sacrifices is just irrelevant. People on shit wages who live in tiny flats also work hard, and too many people don't have any "sacrifices" left to make. I've worked all my life and have a tiny pension that will not even pay a tenth of my housing costs, never mind leave me self-sufficient. I'm going to have to work until I die.

Complain by all means, OP. But not on the grounds that you "work hard".

IME people in well-paid jobs do not work as hard as people in low paid jobs. Cleaning or factory work is harder and more physically demanding than being in meetings and sitting at a desk.

Maybe remortgage over a longer period than you currently have? Like a PP, I have no sympathy for your position.