Should there be an official mechanism to pay the £100 bonus back?

[Katypp]

Clearly the Chancellor's £100 payment for council tax A-D homes is far too broad and is coming to many people who don't need it.
We've had plenty of posts on here from people who say they will get it unnecessarily, live in big houses, have high incomes etc.
Surely it would be a good idea to set up some sort of official mechanism to make it easy to pay the £100 back to the Government if it is not needed? A button to press on online banking to reject it, or a website to make repayment simple?
There's plenty who say they will give it to charity etc, but will they really?

I feel thr same about the winter fuel payment. DM’s pension is more than I earn and she doesn’t really need that either.

I’ll be giving mine to charity. It’s totally ridiculous to be giving it out to those who don’t need it.

I hope more people do, but I hope that they direct it to a charity that does something like the aim
of the money. So to support poor households locally, rather than the medical charities etc. just so that the money is targeted

I wouldn’t give it back to the government regardless of how easy they made it!!

That’s a really good idea. I might do the same.

They could just reorganise the way the cost of electricity is calculated?

I don't understand how you think there would be no real administration involved. It sounds like you want something other than the existing mechanisms to voluntarily donate to HMRC, so how could that not involve a load of work for a one off?

It's less than £2 a week.

I bet the government is delighted at everyone complaining about this instead of holding them to task for their real, serious fuck-ups.

I just don't get why everyone is complaining about this! People are never happy. If you don't want it give it to a food bank. Jeez. Council tax bands are a basic way of targeting what is basically a winter fuel payment for all who may need it the most. Means testing would be too expensive and if it was given to people on benefits then other people would moan.

We live in the SE in a modest 3 bed house and won't get it. Be thankful if you do and give it to a worthwhile charity.

Not been to an nhs hospital? Driven on a public road? Pure private education? Been protected by our armed forces? Nothing at all from the system? I'd love to hear how you live your life

This. Just quietly donated to a local food bank.

Can you imagine the threads of "I know someone who has ten kids and goes to Barbados every month" we would have had?

Lots of freebies go to people who don't need them - working 60 year olds get free prescriptions for instance - but it's very hard to target the right people and when you do, you get howls of outrage that these people don't deserve anything.

Like Brexit? Austerity?

Why does it matter to you personally whether or not they give it to charity, since that seems to be the bit you're most bothered by?

I qualify and I'll be accepting payment. I'm low paid but don't qualify for UC. I give small direct debits to charities that mean something to me but I've been wondering whether I can keep that going. Perhaps everyone who is complaining about getting the payment because they have spare 1000s every month and 5 figure savings, could give their £100 plus a bit more to charity. I bet they won't though.

Using council tax band is an odd way to make the distinction re who gets/doesn’t get the money though.
The council tax band of your house doesn’t relate at all to a person’s income, disposable or otherwise.
The government know how much we all earn because we all pay tax (in the main)
so income would have been a better demarcation for qualifies.

Well, I'm glad of it, I wish I had loads of money to make a big fuss about not needing it.

Exactly. Pass it on if you don’t need it

If they’re in bands A-D then they’re entitled to it. Why would they need to pay it back? They can always donate to a charity, without any drama, if they want to. 🤷‍♀️

Plenty of benefits worth a lot more than £100 per annum are going to people that don't need them. It's a paltry amount and a daft idea. They should be cutting benefits not handing out more.

Honestly this is the kind of rhetoric that ends up with the winter fuel disaster. If you are so lucky you don’t need it you can probably manage to find a worthy cause without putting ideas into people’s heads that loads of people don’t need it.
band E so no I’m not getting it.

I'm going to spend mine on a nice meal out, it's my taxes paying for it after all.

Did people make a big fuss when Rishi Sunak did a similar thing, they just copied that

In theory that’s true, but in reality paying through council tax bands is simpler to administer - and therefore cheaper - than a means-tested system.

I doubt many people would give it back to the government! They should have just given it to bands A and B