Another tough year ahead for pensioners facing inflation-busting Council Tax bills
28/01/2008
Pensioners face a tough year ahead, following another inflation-busting rise in Council Tax of 4%.
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End this Council Tax farce
There is a conspiracy of silence about council tax in the two main parties vying to form the next Government. Although it continues to hit hardest the millions of people on low and fixed incomes, council tax is a taboo subject. Yet it is an unfair tax because it is based solely on the size of the property you live in and not the size of your income.
Is Council Tax REALLY such a bad thing?
Replace Council Tax with increased Income Tax? "We will rue the day that we lose all financial responsibility for local councils," writes one Mature Times reader. Let's have your views on this knotty subject.
£60bn Local Government pension deficit could mean service cuts and Council Tax hikes
The Local Government Pension Scheme could face a deficit of more than £60bn next year if current trends continue, claim the Liberal Democrats. This could have a major impact on public service delivery and Council Tax.
Name change to encourage more to seek help on Council Tax
The Government is to rename Council Tax Benefit as 'Council Tax Rebate' as part of the campaign to encourage pensioners to claim the help to which they are entitled.
Conservative town hall pension claims are "misleading", says TUC
Responding to claims made by the Conservatives concerning town hall pensions, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "It is seriously misleading to suggest that a quarter of council tax goes on the cost of local authority pensions. Simple maths tells us that local council pension contributions cost around six per cent of council income."
Is there a light at the end of the Council Tax tunnel? asks Isitfair
The Isitfair campaign has welcomed the statements by the Conservative Party on freezing Council Tax should they come into office.
Councils and their pound of flesh
On Monday 14th July at 9.30am, Mr Philip McGrevey will be attending the Newton Abbot Magistrates' Court, trying to get recognition of the plight of pensioners struggling to pay ouncil Tax. We would ask for Mature Times readers’ support since we do not want a repetition of what happened in Somerset where a pensioner was driven to take his own life because of the pressures he was under.
Pensioners sent to jail - but councils can write off £130 million in unpaid council tax
While overstretched pensioners struggle to pay their inflated Council Taxes, and some even end up in jail, new figures reveal that town halls have simply "written off" more than £130 million of unpaid council tax.
Council Tax increases 'yet another burden for pensioners'
Help the Aged has condemned this year's rise in Council Tax fearing that, faced with a catalogue of increases for essential items, this will be yet another burden for pensioners.
Council tax jail protest - "there is a better way"
We do not feel that refusing to pay council tax is an appropriate strategy to achieve change. Local authorities are obliged to levy the tax under rules laid down by government and they cannot unilaterally change the system. By withholding payment and, if the council is unable to collect the money, the effect will be to penalise all other council taxpayers in the district who collectively have to make up the shortfall.
Mugged by Council Tax yet again
Every year we pay significantly more tax and in return we are forced to accept cutbacks in services. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Are you being overcharged for Council Tax?
According to a report in a national newspaper, Government ministers and officials have known since at least 2005 that many homes have been placed in the wrong tax bands. The miscalculations could have affected up to 400,000 homes and amount to tens of millions of pounds.
Council tax will now swallow a third of pensioners' incomes
Britain's biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has warned that today's (28 February) survey by CIPFA that council tax is to rise in 2008-09 by an average of 4% will mean even more pensioners falling into poverty.
"Double-whammy" of higher council tax bills and social services cuts
Help the Aged in Wales are warning that many pensioners will be pushed to breaking point this year by rising council tax bills and social services spending cuts.
