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!

How do they actually do that though without incurring masses of admin ?

Yes you'll always have that person on here that argues they are a billionaire and live in Band A while their poverty stricken relative in Band H deserves it more than they do.

But to a first approximation it will target (mostly) lower income/poor people while not giving the rich even more money.

Using the council tax band as a basis to decide who gets it represents a good compromise between the cost of implementation and accuracy in targetting the poor.

How is giving you money an insult?
And how are you spending that much in a Band A-D house? I’m Band D and my electricity is less than £40 a month. It’s pretty stable year round. Gas fluctuates a bit due to heating, but my combined payment for the last year was just over £80.

I do think perhaps there would have been a better way to do it. There will be people getting it who need it less than people who are not, I'm sure.

I live in band E and it’s not a mansion or penthouse suite. It’s a 3/4 bedroom detached around 25 years old and the last one that sold across the road from me went for £370k in the summer. It’s definitely not in the largest 20% of homes in the UK by a long way.

Definitely not jealous. If anything, people will be complaining about more welfare expenditure. This will go to people who don't need it (e.g. the person above who mentions living in a two bed flat and not needing it). Meanwhile it creates an even bigger hole in payments for a massively bloated welfare system that, as is universally agreed by economists, needs drastically cutting. Welfare payments exceed income receipts and the gap is widening - you have to be financially illiterate to not know that cannot continue

Not largest.

Just needs to have been built after the cut off date (such as properties that have to provide accessibility), as they're not rolled back on assessment to what they would have been worth in 1991 compared to the value attributed to huge/expensive/large gardens/garages and off street parking in the middle of a recession.

That’s really good. Which tariff are you on? We pay about £150, 3 bedroom band C

I’m E and our neighbour who has extended their house to make it 3 times the size is D and will get the £100. Make it make sense!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe they need the 25kwh of electric per day (about 3x the national average) to run the bakery in their garage.

I'm not jealous (ours isn't in A-D so we wont get it). I suppose it's an easy way to try to target those who are most in need. Probably will be people in those bands who don't need it and some in higher bands who could do with it but it is what it is. At least it is an attempt to help people. Trying to means test these kind of things often costs more than gets handed out so it's really not worthwhile.
Most people in E or above will have fairly expensive properties and if they're that poor they need £100 to pay their utilities probably need to look at downsizing.

Every household whose property is band A-D will get the £100 paid into their bank account.

Thanks. This will be great news for people struggling but who are not claiming anything.

My son is in a house share with 2 other recent graduates paying high rent in London but the house is a Band E. His brother who is highly paid but lives in home counties lives in his own Band C flat. I know which could really do with the £100 but thems the breaks. They have to find a way to get it rolled out quickly and that's the method they chose.

I would much rather they had used the £2.5bn this is costing to invest in our defence now rather than kicking the can down the road. It was a ridiculous budget - all the difficult decisions delayed but slinking money indiscriminately on this policy and reducing tariffs on baked beans. Pathetic.

I follow a comedy page with new policies from Burnham and I can’t tell which ones are jokes and which are real.

It’s 200 million. You added too many 0s.

Oh nice, I am band C. Will it happen automaticaly or do I somehow have to apply?

Go on then. How would you have done it?

Income tax bands.

The point's already been made but as soon as I heard this I thought hang on, the bands are so out of date that some terraced in London may be band D and worth £1m.plus so the occupants presumably well-off.

My band F is a three bed in the north, not particularly expensive house either by national standards.

I'm band E in a Victorian semi. I'll somehow find a way to go on without being consumed by rage that others might get a bit of help.

This thread has made me realise I can’t communicate actually.

I don't know what you mean about ' banging on about' but to me its a sign of a weak government doing 'gesture politics' as they have no idea how to deal with the serious problems facing the people of this country or the economy, but think 'poor people' are thick enough to be won over by this token.

I live in a very normal three bed end terrace on an 1980s development on the outskirts of a very normal village. We’re Band E. We have a big mortgage and nursery fees and while £100 isn’t going to make or break our finances it would have been genuinely useful. I’m not going to fret about it, but I do think council tax bands are a very odd proxy for need - and well known for being so. It was a strange choice.