Council tax bill - is this wild or are yours insanely high too?

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

My local council took £232 in direct debit today for council tax. I'll be honest, I don't budget to the pound, so was shocked when I saw it and assumed they had wrongly taken off my single person discount. But nope. £232 is what 75% of the council tax charge is for my 3 bed terrace.

WTAF. This feels insanely high.

please don't tell me all about bankrupt councils and adult social care. I've heard it. I know.

My point is how are ordinary people paying these sorts of bills? I'm a single parent of two on a decent wage and it stings.

That was how it was for me, single parent no child support, holding down two jobs at times to cover all the bills. Retired a few years ago and was managing ok until the cost of living crisis hit and now I feel as if i am back to the start except I am no longer young, strong and hopeful! I did my budget the other day and compared to about 3 years ago, my essentlal outgoings (food, fuel, water, council tax, broadband, phone, insurance, tv licence etc) when added up have increased by 129%. I expect that my Band A single person's council tax will be well over £2k a year before I die! I try not to think about it. .

Thats mad. Mine is 160 with single discount. Small modern 3 bed terrace in SW.

Why aren’t all three bedroom houses, for example, taxed the same, regardless of size. Two adults in a larger house use the same roads, rubbish collections, schools etc as someone in a smaller house. I guess people could assume that a larger house equates to larger wages, but that’s not necessarily true.

Or maybe the poll tax wasn’t such a bad idea. People are saying that single people should get a bigger discount, so maybe council tax should be taxed per person, and not per house size … (runs and takes cover)

Two adults are not necessarily using schools.

But yeah, taxing individuals makes more sense in my eyes. A couple in a 4 bed house would be paying the same CT as a group 4+ friends house sharing next door (and they would all be paying less if they split the bill). Or a childless couple be paying the same as a couple with multiple children, which I assume would be making more rubbish and will be using schools etc.

I am not really sure what the answer is.

This was how it was done before council tax.

it was called..poll tax and caused riots.

i had to pay 20% as a student. As a single parent household we were much better off when we were children.

Ours is £350 per month

The rates vary so much partly because councils who get a lot of business rate income milk that cow instead of council tax. It’s why central London often has really low council tax.

Business rates are another killer!

It's Shetland, in Orkney it's less than 100% but still high. Both have good local services that most places can only dream of though. Council tax is not a council's only source of income which is why council tax varies so much from area to area. So, for example, in some urban areas commercial rates are a much higher percentage of that coucil's income that the council tax. Shetland has large reserves due to its historic oil and gas income (it has one of the largest oil facilities in Europe) and uses these to shore up the shortfall in income. Orkney has a high income from harbour charges, it's world class historic sites means it's a popular stop for cruise ships.

We pay £239 a month for a four bed detached in a nice area (South East of England). Although it’s risen by £35 a month since we moved in nearly five years ago, I am relatively happy with our council. Lots of green space, rubbish free roads, wheelie bins, garden waste collections etc.

I compare it to when I lived in an outer London borough. It wasn’t much less for a two bedroom flat. Rubbish everywhere (I used to have to go and pick it up myself), so I know it could be worse!

Ours is over £400 now and don’t get me started on the water rate !

Yes don’t they and I don’t agree with the taxis

Have you spoken to anyone who needs taxis for their SEN kids?
They use their car to get their non-SEN kids to school, and a taxi takes their SEN kid to their particular school, which is often not local.
A parent can not be in two places at once.

There you go then. Everything will come as a surprise/shock if you don't pay attention 😉

Wow. Ours is about £200 and I thought that was extortionate. How are people finding £400+ fees??!

The squeezed middle.

Our council tax increased by 7.5% The local Council carried out research asking residents what their essential priorities were and the following was the result:
Supporting our older and vulnerable people, supporting our children and families, maintaining our roads, open and public spaces, schools and nurseries, children’s play areas, parks, gardens, open spaces and libraries.
.

Is it a reform council? 🤣

Do you realise you were once one of those resource sucking children? What would you suggest we do with the children who have been abused or neglected by their parents, chuck them out on the streets to fend for themselves
You may not need social care help yourself yet, but what about elderly neighbours that haven't got the funds to pay for their own care? Just let them die without dignity or care?

Exactly, people are using “100% of the total council tax take”, as if that is equivalent to “100% of council income”.

In reality, it is the same as me saying I spent all of DS’s child benefit money this month on cello lessons. Which is technically true, but luckily we have two incomes coming in as well so perfectly affordable.

These figures on council pensions are nonsense.

You might equally say none of your council tax goes on pensions, if you assume it all comes from cash given by central government.

There are also deductions made from each employee's salary, and it is actually compulsory for an employer to provide a pension scheme. So even if you make the schemes less "generous" there will still be costs. Plus in the short term the amount employers have to put in to the scheme would likely increase if the scheme was less attractive. Because then people decide not to join, less money comes in yet all the accrued benefits still have to be paid.

£416 here in Perthshire for us.

Ours is now £137ish, with no reduction. A lot better than some people's here! Although we are band A. We do live in a house though, a 2 bed but even 3 beds on the same street are the same bracket I think

Not always I know on 2 taxi kids due to sen. Both are only children. What's your excuse for that

Ask the parents?

Why ask the parents? They didn't ask for the taxi, the LA sent it.