Have You Received Your Council Tax Bill

[emmie]

yet. I have and its nearly £100 a month, just what do they do with all the money,

[MargoTester]

That's for 10 months - 2 months 'free'. That's a 3.5 % increase, blamed (like everything these days) on care for the elderly. We get bins emptied every 2 weeks if that's good service!

[Kathyan]

Ours is £133 a month!

[emmie]

no i wouldn't say that was value for all that money.

[Islay]

Nope don't get Council Tax bills

[emmie]

Islay
lucky you...

[Prudie]

Ours is £210 a month (up £10 a month from last year). It's exorbitant.

[New Judge]

I cannot remember when my bill went through the £100 per month barrier. Mine is increasing by 3.5% this year.

What do they do with the money? (And bear in mind that the money they collect in Council Tax is only about a fifth of all their income). Well my local council’s budget document for 2016-17 amounts to 348 pages to provide details of a budget amounting to a little over £200m (so that’s where some of the money goes). All I get from my contribution is my dustbins emptied and a few street lights.

Looking at the proposed expenditure for next year, around 45% will go on “Social Care” and 15% on “Environment” (which I suppose includes emptying my bins). The rest seems largely to be largely unintelligible items and “noise”. For example “Non Distributed Costs & Corporate & Democratic Core” (no, me neither) – a snip at only around £8m, or about 4%.

What does not seem to be quantified is the sum allocated to the provision of over-generous gold-plated pensions for ex-council wallahs. I believe this to be a considerable drain on local authority finances. However, I did read one piece of promising news among the narrative:

“The Council has to continue to plan for a very different future, i.e. several years of strong financial restraint.” – Whoopee!

But also:

“It is important to recognise that, given the current ongoing period of austerity,…” What austerity?

[Buenchico]

>>> I have according to the DWP too much in savings, so have to pay full rent and council tax

I'm confused! The DWP has absolutely nothing to do with Council Tax Reduction. Each local authority has their own scheme.

My bill for the year (Band A with single person discount) is just under £800 but you've reminded me to go and pick up a form to apply for a reduction, so I should pay less than that in the end.

[murraymints]

if you have over 6K in savings it will reduce any rebate on a sliding scale...but single person will get 25% reduction regardless...

[emmie]

buenchico
that was to Umm, who asked me if i get council tax rebates, which i currently don't. as too much in savings according to the DWP.

[New Judge]

I’m interested in the comments regarding the difference in charges for homes of various values. Why should two people living in a £1m house pay more Council Tax than, say, two parents with four working adult children living with them, pay because their house is only worth £200k?

The services required by those in the less expensive house obviously have the potential to incur costs to the Council of three times those in the £1m pad. I know – they could charge everybody a flat rate and the sum due would then only vary according to the number of adult residents. That seems fair. Hang on though, I think they tried that a while ago. Didn’t they call it the “Community Charge” or “Poll Tax” or something? I wonder why it wasn’t a success.

[Deskdiary]

Just shy of £200 a month.

Picking up on something New Judge said, I recall reading somewhere that anywhere between 20% and 30% of our council tax bills goes towards paying for pensions - if this is true, and I have no idea whether it is, it is utterly disgraceful.

[Jackdaw33]

£70 p.m. (Band A with single discount).

[mikey4444]

Mine is only £59 a month !

[Prudie]

Council tax does not go towards pensions. Income tax however does roundabout the percentage you said deskdiary but that also includes towards benefits which some might also find disgraceful.

[GenuineclAss]

My bill has gone up £5 per month to £102 per month.
My total income is £220.40 per month PIP.
The main increases are Police, up 3.3% - they have closed our local police station; Adult Social Care, up 3% - I could do with a bit myself!; Fire and rescue up 2% - they shut the local fire station down years ago and Barnsley Council up 1.9%, but here in Thurlstone we get nothing except the bin collection on a rotation system.
I'm going to find out who is our Councillor and write to him, to see if I can get any further reduction, as I already get the single person 25%.

[Jackdaw33]

Almost 50% of your income goes on council tax? Something seriously wrong there. Are you claiming the right benefits?

[Jackdaw33]

That means that you have just over £100 per month to live on. Can't be right.

[Mamyalynne]

I've been saying that too Jack for a long time to SirA (Genuine) - something is amiss somewhere.

[dannyk13]

Judging by your posts I am lucky.With single occupancy discount mine is £98 per month.