Jealous of those who live in A-D?

[MrsMurphyIWish]

I’ve started seeing comments about budget money funnelled into “welfare areas”. DH and I are nearly 50. We were raised in an under privileged area - he, working class and me foster care. We never moved and as teachers of nearly 30 years I think we may not be net contributors but we work bloody hard.

Here’s to all at the council area workers where we bloody work our arses off - I’ll take any benefit that comes our way!

All right sarky I’m not exactly the first person to point out that council tax bands have little to do with modern house prices, let alone disposable income.

A quick straw poll of my family WhatsApp shows me (bog standard 3 bed, reasonable income, high mortgage and nursery) in Band E, along with my dad and step mum (retired, 4 bed). My mum (still working, 4 bed) is Band D while my sister and BIL (DINKY, 2 bed flat) is Band C.

Mum and sister have the most disposable income and get the £100, myself and my dad don’t. And tbf, none of us actually need it, so arguably it’s just the govt spending £200 completely unnecessarily.

I’m band A (as is 90% of houses in our council - and I assure their value is definitely not £40K!) and our council tax bill is about £170 a month so not far off your total. What the hell is happening with those bands 🤣🤣🤣 Totally bonkers

Yesterday, I was laughed at on here for suggesting the Govt gives pensioners another 100 quid and today they have. HA.

Ha give the lottery a go you might be on a roll.

Anyone on bands A-D. With an additional fund people can apply to in higher council tax bands if struggling with energy costs.

You wanted it to only go to pensioners and UC claimants. Not exactly what's happened, is it? Many other groups are included.

What's it got to do with areas? My area isn't deprived but im council tax band C

Well you've extended your sample set to 4.

Still somewhat short of the 30 million odd the government uses to determine policy.

Even if we extended it to the mumsnet sample set, which might be a couple of hundred, of which probably most are just made up anyway because they hate Labour, it would pale into significant compared with the data the government use as a basis for policy. Plus it would probably be heavily biased towards people complaining about the tax, in the same way nobody ever really posts on here about how great their husband is or their neighbours are.

council tax is the most ridiculous, illogical system anyway.

A £425,000 house in Merthyr, one of the most deprived areas in Europe, let alone the UK, pays nearly £2k more a year than a £20 million mansion in Richmond.

People complaining about the poorest getting financial support.

We have truly ascended to peak middle class.

Not any more. The number of nurses on band 5 is a minority. Most are band 6 or above.

Agree, it’s odd isn’t it!

There are loads of cheaper areas of the country where a family with a 4 bed house might be band E or F. Their house isn’t worth as much as the London leafy suburb flat you mention. Yet they may have kids at home to pay for and finances stretched - yet don’t get it. Less eco friendly house to heat with more dependents to heat it for. Makes not sense does it!

I agree it’s very random. Not targeted enough.

Yes exactly this! Promised to reform a faulty system then uses said faulty system to direct funding to the ‘needy’.

it’s like shooting fish in a barrel finding ludicrous council tax bandings;

Band E sold half a million
Band D sold half a million
Another half mil band E
band C 550000
Band D 650k

I know houses with work needing planning permission are subject to an increase when sold, but none of these seem to fall into that category.

just editing to add that this took me three minutes, 1 minute being spent coming up with some place names. This isn’t about cheaper versus more expensive areas either as in the same listings, similar priced houses ARE higher bands. This is about a ridiculous and unfair valuation system in the first instance

Because over half of all properties in Merthyr are in band A and around 90% are in A to D. Less than half in Richmond are in A to D.

The upside is 90% will get the £100.

I’d be fine if I thought it was the poorest getting financial support.

i suspect there’ll be a significant chunk going to wealthy Londoners though, purely because houses in London are often band D and below even if they’re worth getting on for a million.

i would rather it go to people on UC, pension credit, child benefit etc…

Ditto Derby. 90% are living in Band A-D properties. My heart bleeds for all the people in Band E or above who won't get the £100. 🙄

Average house price in Lewisham £500k +

90% of properties are bands A-D.

We are band e (3 bed) and my last house was double the size but also band e. It’s not a good way to distribute help

So this is listed as Derby, band C so will get the money and it is 600k? Doesnt look like a needy family lives there to me?

Derby 600k

That's what i was thinking.

Wales was rebanded in 2003 (based on 2003 house prices, not 1991 as in England).

We’re band E in Wales and it’s a tiny terraced house with no room for a single bed in the third bedroom.

Our house is band A. We live here because it’s cheap and no one else wanted it 😂 it’s hard to describe without outing myself.

We don’t claim any benefits because we don’t need to.

We don’t have any heating if it makes you feel better?

So wales generally is going to lose out here because they rebanded while England at least still works on 1991 bands?

more I think about it the more it seems like a daft way to distribute funds. Plenty well off people will qualify, while some who need it won’t…

It is utterly ridiculous how any additional hand-outs now seem to be based on council tax band which are, in the large part, meaningless.

I'm not saying we're on the breadline, but as an example, our house in the south-east is worth around £320k and it's a band E! Our house wasn't even bloody built in 1991 so goodness knows what they've based it on.

Not read the thread but I have a friend in Durham whose house is worth £198k according to Rightmove. She's Band E as her house was a new-ish-build detached. I've seen houses up for sale near me for £500k that were apparently in Band B (the same as 2 up 2 down terraces and council/ex-council, half that price, and £375k 3 bed terraces) and one house is currently on the market for £550k, and another £675k (SSTC) house that are in Band C.

I can see a lot of people's bands changing if neighbours start querying/snitching.