Unemployed to Pay Council Tax.

Fat Bastard Eric Pickles: Make the Unemployed Pay Council Tax!

People on JSA and other benefits will be paying a percentage of Council Tax by 2013.

Ipswich Borough Council has announced,

Council tax benefit is currently the responsibility of the Government but from 1 April 2013 local authorities are being told to design a Local Council Tax Support Scheme to determine how much discount working age people will receive in the future to help pay their council tax.

In addition, the Government is also reducing the grant made available to pay these benefits by 10% and has stated that pensioners must not be affected by these changes. This means some low-income working age households will have to pay more council tax as the amount of support they receive will be less.

This means that it will be up to local authorities to determine the level of Council Tax Benefit the out-of-work will receive.

In all cases they will end up paying cash.

Ipswich Borough Council is Labour controlled. We understand that they are extremely concerned about this scheme. They have  the intention of keeping the contribution from those on benefits as low as possible (around 3%).

Liberal and Conservative Councils are free to levy far higher rates.

Which they will certainly do.

You could live in a street in one authority and have to fork out much more than somebody across the road in another municipality.

In Suffolk this will mean people on benefits living just next to Ipswich in, say, Suffolk Coastal District, (a Tory stronghold), being taxed more than those inside its boundaries.

Ipswich Borough offer four options:

Option 1: Reducing the discount to those who are not working, but who are of working age and are available to work. This would have the effect of ‘making work pay’, by reducing the amount of benefits available to those who are able to work and increasing the incentive to work.

Option 2: Removing the discount available to owners of second homes.
This would ensure that owners of second homes, who currently only pay 90%, make an equal contribution to the local area.

Option 3: Removing the discount available to owners of empty homes
This would help bring empty properties back into use so that they can be used to house local families.

Option 4: End the second adult rebate.

It is important that people participate in the Consultation Process: Here.

Similar consultations are taking place up and down the country.

The new system will mean:

• Those with hardly enough money to live on (benefits) having to pay out.
• Councils spending large sums to collect the Council Tax from those who will it difficult to find the cash.
• A massive rise in non-payment.

From the Liberal-Conservative Coalition this has the following advantages:

• Putting an extra burden on Labour authorities, in working class and poor areas, who will find it hard to raise the 10% shortfall (above).
• Make electors blame their council for having to pay when they didn’t before.
• Make the lives of the unemployed even more of a misery.

Fat Bastard  Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and responsible for the measure,  lives on a diet of cream doughnuts, caviar, and dead-babies.

He is well-pleased with this scheme.