Cut benefits before increasing council tax

[Bonde]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/reeves-council-tax-hike-5HjdMrJ_2/

As an increase in income tax is now out the window, the government will have to look at other ways to fill the gap by increasing a dozen smaller taxes. One option, I think they will opt for, is to apply a surcharge for homes in bands F,G&H. It would be politically expedient to do so because many people will assume those in such homes are wealthy.

We purchased our band f property earlier this year at £550k. We live in London and didn’t want to uproot our family, and move jobs, so decided to buy our 2.5 bed house.
After mortgage and bills, we have £100 to £200 left over, but some months have nothing. An increase would be so difficult to manage.

Why can’t the government have the courage to cut benefits. You can buy a BMW or Mercedes on the Mobility Scheme! Why?

Don't be talking sense now.

There wasn’t meant to be more tax rises after the last budget so I get why people are annoyed.

In case anyone needs it clarifying:

Widdlin' qualifies for the mobility part of PIP. She gets £300 a month for this.

Widdlin' can choose to spend that on taxis, buses, a wheelchair, a scooter, on anything that helps her get around really.

She chooses to spend it on a car lease via the Motability Scheme.

She looks at the scheme and finds the only vehicle her wheelchair will fit in is a WAV, a Citroen Spacehopper (Spacetourer) which is massive and has a 5K advanced fee, plus adaptations cost which she doesn't yet know.

She cannot use taxis, there are none in her small town or slightly larger nearby city that can take her powerchair.
She can use the train, but only to get to Very Large City which she rarely needs to go to. The station in Slightly Larger City is not accessible for her chair. Therefore the Spacehopper is really the sensible option unless Widdlin' intends to never go further than Aldi's down the road.

Over the five year lease, Widdlin's Spacehopper is going to cost her at LEAST 23K, vs not having the Spacehopper (not including the adaptations fee which was several more K because its a lowered floor, winch, ramp, tie down points, different seat belt set up).

After 5 years, Widdlin has to do it all over again.

If Widdlin' chooses not to have the Spacehopper, she will still be in receipt of the mobility part of PIP because she is still a big fat cripple. So the cost to the taxpayer will not reduce if Widdlin' does not have the Spacehopper.

Please explain where that buys Widdlin' a car, or where that car is free to Widdlin'.

(figures not quite accurate i have better things to do than go look up the exact numbers. By 'cost her' Widdlin is aware that some will argue this isn't 'her' money it's the governments and thus the taxpayers but this is money the government currently says Widdlin' is entitled to and at the point of choosing whether to use it via the motability scheme or spaff it on cake, it is Widdlin's money because it's in Widdlin's bank account!)

Cutting the ‘flash cars’ on the mutability scheme would save precisely nothing. The Motability scheme is paid for by individuals using their higher rate PIP, plus sometimes an upfront payment, to lease a car. It doesn’t matter what the car is, the PIP cost to the government is what’s important. So to save money you have to reduce PIP for all claimants, or at least reduce the higher rate PIP as I think that’s what’s required to access the Motability scheme.

The question is, did you vote Labour, if you did you get everything you deserve.

If you're asking about the universal credit rates you can google that too - my figures were slightly out of date but not too much

www.gov.uk/universal-credit/what-youll-get

There are 32 Boroughs in London. Most of them have considerably higher Council Tax than Westminster.

Exactly and I know where my sympathy lies.

Yep I’m applying your empathy to those in Kent voting Reform too - cuts in lots of areas , council tax up to the maximum

People working with dc in London often stretch to buy a house. It’s expensive.

I don’t blame the op for not wanting to be hit with more taxes.

This!

I live in a Band E house in London. My council tax is over £3000 per year.

Exactly this i am on high rate mobility so would be entitled to lease a car but I get more use out of the money and I already own my own car why would I want to lease one that they could take away at anytime.

You can't buy any car on the motobility scheme.

The problem op is I’m guessing you are still paying less than my band d property, council tax is cheap in London, is that fair???

the money needs to come from somewhere, cutting benefits will harm the least able to cope

Anxiety and an anxiety disorder are not the same thing

It was your choice to buy a house that expensive in London, and stretch yourself so much financially.
Disabled people do not choose to be disabled.
I also suggest you educate yourself on the Motability scheme and PIP before coming out with tosh about people owning BMWs with your money.

If you want to benefit bash perhaps educate yourself first. How on earth did you pass affordability checks so recently with only that amount left per month - you should really stress test a variety of scenarios before committing to such a large monthly payment what happens if interest rates have risen when you are due to remortgage or one of you stops working?

About the only one thing I agree with this loathsome gov't, and that's to hit those awful gambling/gaming joints that you see on every high street, usually in poorer parts.

Council tax bands were set in 1993 based on their value on 01 April 1991 - nothing to do with their age!

It's like groundhog day with disability benefit bashing on here at the moment.

Council tax itself needs reforming. Its complete nonsense. We have the same size house as the OP and its Band A... because it was on an operational RAF base when the bands were introduced.
New builds that are smaller in our road are Band C.

Does that mean Benefits should be cut? No. I've never met anyone on UC etc whose rolling in it... mostly working out how to feed their children at the end of the month.

Clam down it’s a valid discussion. The benefits bill is getting out of hand whether that suits you or not but hey let’s not discuss it incase it upsets folk.

8 of the 10 lowest council tax bills in England are in London.

“In Pendle, a borough in Lancashire in the North West, residents pay the highest proportion of income on council tax in England – at 10.97% of a person’s median annual income.
This equates to £2,535.19 spent yearly on council tax for people on an average annual income of £23,100.
Pendle has the highest level of child poverty of any UK local authority, with 43.2% of children under the age of 16 living in relatively low-income families in 2022/23.
City of London borough residents, on the other hand, pay the lowest, with 2.10% of someone’s annual median income going to council tax.
This means they are paying £1,274.07 a year in council tax, on average incomes of £60,700.
Yet the area is home to some of the most expensive property in London, with 13% of homes worth more than £2 million, according to a recent study by property brokers Jefferies James.
The data shows how council tax creates a much higher relative burden on households in areas where incomes are lower.
Overall, Northern and Midlands local authorities dominate the top 20 highest tax burden areas, while London dominates the bottom 10.
David Burrows, head of Getamover.co.uk, says: “These figures show significant regional inequality in how council tax affects household budgets.
“For families planning a move, the relationship between local tax rates and average salaries can significantly affect long-term financial health.
“What matters isn’t just the headline council tax figure, but how much of your monthly income it will consume based on local wage levels.”

New build houses tend to get bunged into very high bands for whatever reason.

Remember that the bands were set by taking the average house price for an area and making that D, then applying fixed percentages up and down to determine the rest.

So you can live in a part of the country or a council area that's deprived, and your ordinary house will be in band F/G/H because it's above average for that specific area. People on normal incomes will live in these houses, and just because the area is deprived, their transport, utilities, groceries etc aren't somehow any cheaper than elsewhere in the country.
How on earth are people like that meant to find another 3K per year?

A small income tax rise would be far fairer, but Labour don't quite dare to break their manifesto pledge to that extent so are happy to instead hammer a smaller percentage of people on the assumption that everyone else will think they're taxing "the rich".