Council Tax

The big parties’ council tax claims: correct, deceptive and useless

Cameron's Villa punditry is as reliable as his tax claims

By:
Published April 23, 2013, in Opinion


(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you catch David Cameron on Aston Villa’s Premier League survival chances last week? He was in Nuneaton launching the Conservatives’ local election campaign and, being a longstanding Villa fan (in the way so many of us developed our childhood allegiances, his uncle was the club’s Chairman), he was asked about their chances of avoiding relegation. His response: “I’m sure it’ll be alright in the end”.

Fantastic! A politician’s near-perfect answer. Short and upbeat. Inoffensive, in that it didn’t mention at whose expense Villa might survive. No definition of ‘the end’ – of the season, of the decade, of the millennium? – so no possibility of being proved wrong. And, as a consequence, utterly meaningless. The trouble was that several

Continues…

Grumblings in the ranks put Sir Albert’s leadership on the line

Clancy the likely challenger following council tax relief rebellion

By:
Published January 11, 2013, in Politics


Sir Albert Bore’s grip on the leadership of Birmingham City Council suffered a humiliating setback following the worst rebellion by disgruntled Labour councillors in years.

Chamberlain News has learned that almost a third of the Labour group refused to support Sir Albert’s view that the council has no alternative but impose Government benefit cuts on the poorest families.

It’s emerged that 20 of the 63 councillors attending a private group meeting earlier this week either

Continues…

A tale of two West Midlands cities

Birmingham makes poorest pay council tax - Coventry finds a way to protect benefits

By:
Published January 7, 2013, in Politics


taxbillA different approach to benefit cuts by two Labour-controlled cities means that Birmingham’s poorest families must pay council tax bills for the first time while those in Coventry will not have to.

As many as 70,000 Birmingham households stand to lose out from April when Communities Secretary Eric Pickles passes responsibility for administering council tax benefit schemes to local authorities, and cuts the amount allocated for the payments by 10 per cent.

Birmingham said it couldn’t make up the 10 per cent – £11 million – from other sources and would have to scrap 100 per cent benefit payments for claimants who are unemployed or on very low incomes.

Coventry Council, however, decided not to pass on the 10 per cent cut, which is about £2.9 million in its case, and will continue to pay council tax rebate in full to the poorest families.

After a period of consultation Birmingham’s cabinet decided to reduce the maximum rebate people can claim from 100 per cent to 80 per cent, rather than

Continues…

Labour’s early fireworks party

The inside track on Birmingham City Council - Paul Dale's Diary

By:
Published September 24, 2012, in Politics


It’s not November yet, but we can expect plenty of fireworks when Birmingham City Council’s controlling Labour group finally gets around to meeting after a three month summer break.

The comrades, all 77 of them, last gathered to discuss policy at the beginning of July and there has been no opportunity since then for backbenchers collectively to have their say on the way things are going.

I hear that Sir Albert Bore, the council leader, has called an extraordinary group meeting for the first Monday in October in response to demands for a debate on controversial Government welfare reforms.

And in typical Albert fashion, he’s arranged the meeting

Continues…

Braced for a council tax bombshell

70,000 Brummies will lose rebates, but Government insists cuts unnecessary

By:
Published August 29, 2012, in Politics


About 70,000 low-income Birmingham households will have to pay council tax for the first time following Government changes to the way benefits are administered, it has been revealed.

The maximum rebate that most people will be able to receive is likely to be set at 76 per cent.

Only claimants with children under six, or who are disabled, and pensioners, will be able to continue claiming 100 per cent council tax benefit from April 2013.

The changes, which have been condemned as an attack on the poor by the city council’s Labour leadership, arise from a Government decision to hand the administration of council tax benefit to local authorities and at the same time to cut by £11 million the amount Birmingham gets to run the scheme.

Council leader Sir Albert Bore claimed he had no alternative but to pass on the funding cut in the form of lower rebates. He warned that the additional cost to the council when provision for bad debts and extra administrative costs are taken into account could be £15 million a year.

Sir Albert added:  “The city council cannot afford to make good this cut in Government funding without increasing the already severe savings it is making in all other service areas. This means that we face the hard choice of how we pass on this funding shortfall and we will be consulting with residents on this over the next three months.

“There are 135,000 Birmingham households which already receive council tax benefit because they are living on low incomes and need this help to meet their council tax bills. Many of those families are working but are still on low incomes, trying to make ends meet.

“The Government has simply passed the buck, knowing full well that councils cannot afford to absorb the shortfall and that we have no option but to pass the impact on to hard working families in our cities.”

Some Labour-led councils have accused the Government of bringing back the poll tax through the back door by making sure that even the poorest families will have to make a contribution to council tax for the first time since the early 1990s.

However, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles insists that cities like Birmingham wouldn’t have to cut rebates if they were more efficient about administering benefits and collecting council tax.

by the Department for Communities and Local Government suggest that Birmingham could save £4 million a year by eliminating fraud and error from the benefits system.

Mr Pickles said: “When councils take over the benefit with their local schemes there is lots of money to claw back from wasteful mistakes and fraudsters cheating the system.

“Town halls are already the ones who set and collect council tax so it makes senses that they are the ones who give out the support too. Our reforms will restore the confidence of hard-working taxpayers that the benefits bill is under control and that work pays.”

As well as limiting most rebate claims to 76 per cent Birmingham is planning to scrap council tax relief on empty properties, in a move expected to raise £4.4 million a year. In addition, backdated council tax benefits will be reduced from six months to one month.

The changes mean that about 70,000 households will have to start paying 24 per cent of their council tax bill, an amount that is likely to range from £260 to £350 in most cases.

A £1 million hardship fund is expected to be set up by the council to help families in the greatest need.

 

« Older Entries
 
%d bloggers like this: