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?

There’s basically no link between amount paid and services received for CT because so much of it goes on very small populations of people (children’s social care for e.g. which thankfully most people never need to use). The amount spent on stuff we all use like bin collections and road maintenance is minuscule. And there’s no link between how deprived an area is and the amount you pay - e.g. average band D in London much less than in north east of England.

So virtually any system will feel wildly unfair to many people.

@Caravaggiouch ". It’s not deemed prudent to use one-off capital receipts to fund recurring expenditure because what do you plan to do when you’ve used the one-off resources?"
this is an 8 figure one off. So it could be used on long term repairs and still reduce our bills even by £20 a month this year.

but they prefer more capex projects. We have a new leisure centre within less than a mile of another leisure centre...mostly empty. I walk past it every day. But the council gave their mates loads of money to build it so they are very proud.

but I'm sure you know, everything within councils is designed to be as costly as possible, right down to stationery procurement.

the right people make a lot of money out of white elephants.

Council tax is exactly that.
When we paid domestic rates, they were based purely on the value of the house.
Community Charge, or Poll tax was based on adult head count

Council tax is a hybrid. 50% is based on value of property, 50% is based on 2 adults living in the house; so single people pay half of that 50%.

People either have short memories or are tok young to remember the poll tax when Thatcher tried to charge per person I'm the household which went down like a bucket of cold sick to the point there were riots.

The reality is the same service is offered to all households so the fact they decide to charge by house value is probably fairer than by person or by property especially wheen a discount is offered to singles.

So instead of thinking great 25% off that's nice you're complaining it isn't more off?

If your house catches fire you still get 100% of the fire service anyone else does

I get the singles persons discount and I could have five kids under 18 at home.
They could take it in a case by case basis, how many people, what size property, hey they could weigh your waste and get you to give them your car mileage! They could ask if you use the extra services like meals on wheels that are paid for by council tax and charge extra! Charge more if your house is more of a fire risk. But no they really can't, so they do what they can.
You get a discount. You could use more of the services than three people. Who knows.

you don’t make any sense!

Quite

Yes I do

Those poll tax riots were somthin' else .. I can so remember those bills I was a teenager , they went straight in the bin , I was too young for household bills . 😂Never paid them . Council tax is so much better .

Caravaggiouch · Today 20:05
There’s basically no link between amount paid and services received for CT because so much of it goes on very small populations of people (children’s social care for e.g. which thankfully most people never need to use). The amount spent on stuff we all use like bin collections and road maintenance is minuscule. And there’s no link between how deprived an area is and the amount you pay - e.g. average band D in London much less than in north east of England.

So virtually any system will feel wildly unfair to many people.

True, two-thirds of local council spending is on adult & child social care + homelessness. Services, which virutally nobody uses - as you say the amount spent on bins and roads is MINISCULE !

Taxation is not paid because a person 'costs the country more' it is paid because taxation is the price we pay for a civilised society. The more you can afford the more in £ you pay - although often the actual % is lower.

This is vital if you want a lawful, functioning modern society.

If you don't want that, well, what exactly do you want? Do you really want to go back to no law and order, no education, no street repairs, no hospitals? Enjoy fighting off bandits.

That’s the whole point, you don’t have any evidence. So what I am pointing out is that without evidence you could easily argue it either way.

It’s actually not “fairly obvious” that more people equals more risk for fire purposes because actually you could argue it the other way, and say that with more people you have more eyes and more bodies to look out for and deal with any issues before you’d ever need to ring the fire brigade. E.g. a plug in the living room starting a small fire while you are asleep, if you live alone you won’t notice until it’s a huge fire that’s woken you up & requires fire brigade. If there’s 3 other adults in the house then any of them could be in the living room and notice the first spark and easily extinguish it🤷🏻‍♀️

Exactly this.

Elderly couple in our road have their own carers her four times a day, him once a day. Next door to them a couple with four children of school age. Next to them an Airbnb, next to that a single man. We all pay the same council tax. Our needs all differ.

I pay £170. Four kids, one disabled work part time single Mum.

I think there should be a special extortionate rate for AirBnBs...

The single man pays 25% less.

Depending on the elderly couples needs they may also get an exemption.

That is incredible ! If only someone had thought of that before ..

I'm still trying to sell my late father's house. Just been billed 186 for an empty house.

It's even worse wiith the water bill, £600 for a two bed flat with me as as the only occupant, no single person discount. A family of four wouldn't pay any more, but they'd use a lot more water.

There is talk in Wales

Elderly couple in our road have their own carers her four times a day, him once a day. Next door to them a couple with four children of school age. Next to them an Airbnb, next to that a single man. We all pay the same council tax. Our needs all differ.

All, of these people may be paying nothing (or vey little), if they are receiving Council Tax Benefit.

Well he works in London part time, has a flat there so he's paying twice