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- 2008
- March 2008
- 31 March 2008
- Non emergency hotline saved after home office pulls plug on funding
- Councils launch crackdown on utilities digging up the roads
- Taxpayers Alliance figures need to be taken with dollop of salt
- Junk food outlet ban near schools no ‘silver bullet’
- Extension of human rights law ‘Victory for common sense’ - LGA
- Council tax rise is lowest for over a decade
- Councils must be at the heart of constitutional reform
- Planning review
- Developers must help to plug shortage in allotments
- Councils get green light to help save post offices
- Local Government Employers submit formal pay offer to unions
- School application fraud increasing
- LGA launches new climate change campaign
- Kiss goodbye to inheritance, kids told, as reality of care costs hit home
- LGA response to Budget 2008
- Budget offers 'little relief' for town halls
- Help hard pressed council taxpayers, town halls urge Chancellor
- Government backs LGA call for stronger council control over school admissions
- Bring local people together with properly funded services
- LGA calls for greater vigilance on forced marriages
- Waste tax could take £70 from every household
- Reform of benefits could cut council tax for one in three
- Combat climate change and fight fuel poverty by insulating every home - LGA
- LGA response to 'People power' white paper
- Tackle alcohol licensing to help end binge drinking Britain
- Olympic training camps revealed
Reform of benefits could cut council tax for one in three
LGA press release - 7 March 2008
Reform of the council tax benefit system in next week’s Budget could cut council tax bills for up to one in three households and give greater financial support to six million people who live in poverty, council leaders will say today.
The Local Government Association, which represents over 400 councils in England and Wales, is calling for the Chancellor to initiate a shake-up of the system to allow more people to claim reductions in council tax.
A massive £1.8bn of benefits goes unclaimed every year and six million people in poverty live in homes which pay full council tax. Pensioners are particularly reluctant to claim, with around two million elderly failing to claim.
The LGA is calling for:
- More measures to help eligible households apply, including a publicity campaign to encourage take-up of benefits, in particular amongst pensioners.
- A rise in the level of income at which people start to lose council tax benefit
- People with greater savings to be allowed to claim council tax reductions, raising the savings threshold from £16,000 to £? (should be in line with inflation since 1991) as recommended by Sir Michael Lyons in the review of local government
There are also chronic failings in the system, which mean that many people are unable to claim as much as they should. It points out that people who receive Working Tax Credit lose Council Tax benefit and highlights the fact that claimants start losing council tax benefit even before they begin to pay income tax.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, Vice-Chair of the Local Government Association says: “Council tax benefit is failing society’s most vulnerable, especially among pensioners and the low paid. The Chancellor should use next week’s Budget to set up a much-needed overhaul of the system.
“An eye-watering £1.8bn goes unclaimed every year. One in three households are eligible and many people just don’t realise that they can get help with their council tax bills. The benefit is wrongly seen as something just for the very poor.
“It’s unacceptable that one and a half million children and one million pensioners in poverty are living in households that pay full council tax. The whole system desperately needs to be simplified and the financial limits on eligibility increased to allow more people to benefit.
“It is wholly unjustifiable for people to lose Council Tax Benefit even before they begin paying income tax. Equally the system stops people with even modest savings from claiming reductions. These thresholds must be changed to provide greater help to more people.
“It is a nonsense that Council Tax Benefit and Working Tax Credit simply work against each other. People going back to work are immediately hit with much higher council tax bills, which acts as a disincentive for the unemployed to get a job. Tackling this anomaly will help the Government in its campaign to help people move off benefits and into work.”
ENDS
Author: LGA Media Office
Contact: Nick Mann, Tel: 0207 664 3187