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?

They are fixed health professionals with a proforma to follow? Probably as good as it’s going to get.

RR should have stuck to increasing income tax. It would have been a lot fairer than increasing council tax when so many houses are in the wrong council tax band. Where I live rurally you have modest 4 bed family homes in the top band paying the same as a millionaire that lives in a 10 bedroom mansion. On my road the council tax band was decided based on one house that was massively extended to twice it's size so every other house has been penalised. The neighbours have been appealing for years to no avail.

I agree with your other post that PIP assessments are not always carried out by people with suitable qualifications, particularly in respect of mental health, but I am biased as a mental health professional.

I disagree that it is open to abuse, having supported many people through the process. In fact, I feel that the process itself is abusive but that's another discussion. That doesn't mean that I think it isn't abused though, just at much much lower rates than people use to support their arguments.

I wouldn't personally cut any benefits in an ideal world. I believe everyone has a right to a basic standard of living.

I remember when they sold it to that French company to do the ESA assessments. I went to a few with people around that time and even won a backpayment for one of them. They were not health professionals.

I don't think we could even have capacity to properly assess all the claims, which his part of the issue that there are so many. It's not financially sustainable.

So what you are saying is that working people should work harder and harder to fund the enormous number of people claiming benefits?
You may well be genuine, but at what point do you want working people to be broken?
Does your husband work long hours?

I could cry today. We bought our hose in 2022 for 450,000. It’s been a really tight few years . I know that 450k is more than most peoples house. But it’s not a mansion. I’m a teacher and my partner is an engineer. We’ve never Inherited anything and never will. We also have about £200 per month that isn’t accounted for. I’m trying really hard to save the kids child benefit towards uni costs but I don’t think it’ll be possible with this. We pay £350 a month already council tax on a 3 bedroom detached house. Every month is a struggle. I don’t really know where the money can come from. I’ve looked today at thr council bands for the houses in our post code. Ours is the highest and I really don’t know why: some of the others have twice the amount of bedrooms and are probably worth twice as much. Apparently you have to contest this within 6 months of moving in. I’m so scared about what they will do: I’m hoping it’ll be something when you sell the house as we can’t really afford to pay more than the 350 we already pay fjr council tax. Honestly I’ve been worrying all day

Criminalise the innocent, and let off the guilty, seems to be the modern Liebour way ?

You work hard for satisfaction and to fund your own lifestyle don't you?

Not to mention. A realitive of mine would struggle every single day in an old 10 plate car but doesn’t in a higher car as in off the ground and all the adaptions like heated seat for her pain the drive assist etc to support her driving. Some people don’t have brain cells. People are disabled whether that be mentally or physically and these morons are choosing to be ignorant to it

I'm fed up of seeing threads on here bashing Labour for things they HAVE NOT DONE. Your whole thread is that you've made something up and then got angry about it. I'm not the biggest labour fan right now but discussions need to be based in reality.

Is the person with epilepsy the driver or is the car for their carer to drive them around?
If the epilepsy is controlled enough they can drive then they shouldn't be claiming anything surely? I have epilepsy which has been controlled for many years but even in the years it wasn't and I couldn't drive I still didn't claim anything I just got on with life. Never even occurred to me I might be disabled in any way.

I would have sucked up an income tax rise - I'm not a high earner but could wear a couple of hundred extra quid a year.
I can't afford to find an extra 3K plus, I just can't.

I tell you what, I'll swap you my Mercedes Motability car for your expensive house.

The only catch is that your child has to be severely disabled as that's the reason why I have my Motability car.

Deal? Yeah, I thought not.

Do you work too?

Thank goodness we have another right-wing campaigners thread. There’s been so few of these recently 🙄

Yawn.

Do you often come onto mumsnet to make a fool of yourself?

How is that unfair? Council tax pays for local services so in high density area the cost per household will be lower. There are advantages to living in a lower density area though (pollution, noise, to name a few). In a sense the council tax discrepancy partly reflects that.

This!
Just piss off with your benefits bashing thread OP! I’ve got cancer, can’t work, on chemo, in pain, reliant on pip, ESA and MY savings. Also unlikely to see my young adult kids grow up. Want to swap?!!!!

I would maybe cautiously state that while the number of benefits fraud cases are small it’s because the individuals recruited to investigate these roles lack knowledge to be in the role. I went for an interview within the department that does this work and one of the panel did not know what AML was when I used it in one of my responses.
I think benefits need to be reviewed to see if some circumstances are the same. Benefits abuse is quite rife in my wider family and so it maybe more common than thought.

I don’t think the child benefit cap should be lifted but that money but should it I think the money should be invested into schools instead. Possibly to provide greater SEN provisions and ensure children can access education more suited / tailored to their needs.

The mobility scheme is an option if those eligible decide to use the money they are entitled to on a car or have the cash. It’s easy to say they shouldn’t have a luxury car but it might not suit their needs. I have an autoimmune condition I do not get PIP for it, however as a result of my condition I really struggle to drive manual vehicles. There is a certain make of car which is very very easy to drive and therefore I won’t drive any other. I do have that car , they are not cheap and are in the “luxury” category. My car is 10 years old but it works best for me, so we don’t know what the needs of those who need a car and so it’s not as easy as they shouldn’t drive that car.

The council tax amendments I don’t agree with either because again the service is not returned by local authorities so not value. It also shouldn’t be cause your house is worth X you pay more. Those who say you shouldn’t have a house you can’t afford, well maybe when someone brought it they could then to just be slapped with an increase without any justification beside price is a little nonsensical. Again if they don’t buy the house then on the current model a lot of revenue wouldn’t have been generated from their stamp duty. Also those who have by some miracle been given a council house which is that band will they be subjected to it? Or is it just homeowners who have to pick up the tab?

Income tax is the easiest way to raise the revenue but it needs to be fair, it can’t just be on net contributors to facilitate this.

The known benefit fraud might only make up 1% but we all know there are many more probably committing fraud who are not found out.

Absolutely not always the case. Sometimes the unexpected happens. You have to dig deep and keep going. And my job used to be fantastic, but since Covid it has become almost impossible. And if one of your previous pensions collapsed and then one gets made redundant, plans can go out the window. But no one has ever funded our lifestyle, apart from us. Even in tough times.

The OP could afford it before this disgusting government decided to tax the homes people live in

You would be highly unlikely to get pip for social anxiety especially a mild form which you can just work through. You may not realise it but what you are describing is very mild anxiety. Anxiety disorder covers agoraphobia, panic disorder, ocd, ptsd, selective mutism. There is no pip criteria for going red from talking to someone

Well, we could have had a national revaluation in the early 2000s, but it was shelved last minute because everyone moaned about it.

As a result, we are stuck with valuations based on prices as at 1993. I used to work for the valuation office and thought it was daft to shelve the reval at the time, but the public outcry was so high over it.

You see, we are our own worst enemy. The short term view was 'ooh, my tax band might go up'.

My DH works stupid hours for a pittance (way below minimum wage) because he can do it around DS and his needs. So yes, you can have a disabled family member and still work long hours.

I only work 20hrs at present but that's because that was the job I could find after being made redundant.

No UC, we get DLA for DS and DH gets Carers Allowance.