Council tax very unfair to single people

[Lettuceandtomatoes]

The council tax for my area is £1800 full whack, a single person 25% off. I pay £140 a month which is ok until I realised the three adults next door are paying £60 pounds each and a couple paying £90 each. So why this inequality aimed at single people, picking up the tab?

YANBU. Single people get stung financially in almost every way.

Have more people live in your place....it's the property that attracts the tax not the person.

Presumably you live in a bigger property than a one bed flat?

I sometimes get wound up about this. Why is the discount 25%? I seem to remember someone somewhere on here explaining why it wasn't 50%.

Because the services you receive are the same as next doors.

What if the single person has an income of £100k, the couple a joint income of £75k and the 3 adults an income of 50K?

What difference does that make?
2 people in a 1 bed flat pay 50% each
1 person in a 1 bed flat pays 75%

Why is this relevant? OP isn't grumbling about the amount, it's the proportion she objects to.

I used to work in Council Tax. It's 50% a property tax and 50% a person tax. So if you're a single person you pay for the property element and get a 50% discount on the person element.

What?

It's not unfair.

When I was a SAHM, DH paid all the council tax. I didn't have an income. And we didn't get a 25% discount.

Do you remember the reaction to introduction poll tax under Maggie thatcher? It was to charge per adult in a household but there were many multi generation dwellings, especially up north, who would have suffered and they had to go back on the policy.

@Dacadactyl op can’t choose not to work though can she. You made that choice.

A lad at work today was saying that he is band c in a one bedroom flat and it’s over £175 a month now.

its a beautiful one bedroom ground floor flat with garden and parking, but certainly no room for a pony!

Not at all comparable!

Having said that, I do think 25% is quite a large discount (and I get the single occupant deduction).

This...

the council tax funds your bin collection and other services... your house still gets the same collections, the same service just less quantity, the bin wagon still comes on the same schedule, you may produce less waste but its still collected on the same schedule,

just because you don't have the property at full capacity (a one bed flat would be lower band council tax), the amount of people living at your house doesn't mean that you wouldn't call the police or fire department if you had an issue...

The council tax isn’t just about bins!

Council tax support is a thing for people on benefits.

Meh, it's worth it not to have to share

I've got serious deja vu. Have you posted this before?

The government tried to bring in a poll tax in the very early 90s, which would have been a per person levy, but there were riots over it, with student households arguing against it.

I don't remember if the poll tax would have included a student exemption, but council tax does so I would imagine it did.

It's one of those taxes for which absolutely everyone considers they pay more than the value of the services they receive - which clearly isn't the case.

Everything needs funding whether you personally use it or not - those things are essential for a decent, functioning society.

It's not levied on a per-person basis, so YABU.

You'll get a load of crap about how it's 50% property and 50% personal (plus completely irrelevant tosh about people's DHs paying theirs - no one cares) and yeah MAYBE back in the days of Methuselah when it was introduced that might have washed but Council Tax is an abomination because

• it varies wildly depending on your postcode
• it's based on property prices from the 90s
• any properties built after that time get a banding that's literally just made up
• it's charged on all properties regardless of tenure - 35% of households rent so they don't even own the asset that is theoretically valued
• it's not linked to ability to pay
• single people pay 50% more than couples

For a taxation system ie a system of mandatory payments that a state imposes on citizens this is all deeply problematic. Obviously no tax system is perfect but there are huge fundamental flaws with council tax.

I think it should be per person.

I am one person in a tiny one bed using one person's worth of resources.

though if I was in a bigger property, would I being using more resources? I don't think so.

I also think a small flat should be band B but apparently it's 300sq ft bedsits that are band B, so the type where you put the bed away.

This. It’s not unfair, you’re paying for property services. Presumably as a single person you can choose to live in a smaller property and pay less, or take in a lodger if living in a bigger one. But a household regardless of the number of people living in it uses the same amount of property services, so that’s what you’re paying for.

I think 500 sq ft is small enough but obvs the council don't agree.

I wonder what Band A is size wise?