3 Sep
10:40am, 3 Sep 2024
45,908 posts
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SPR
How do you mean test a single person discount and if it's means tested is it even a single person discount anymore? Given there's already council tax benefit for those on low income, isn't that just saying the single person discount shouldn't exist?
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3 Sep
10:41am, 3 Sep 2024
33,022 posts
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Johnny Blaze
My son is on Universal Credit, which is means-tested. WFA isn't, so hey, well off pensioners can have a few nice meals or a new phone. So that's all good. |
3 Sep
10:48am, 3 Sep 2024
6,338 posts
|
paulcook
Controversial opinion, but it's not those receiving UC, WFA, Council Tax single person benefits, reduced bus fares, reduced train fares that have got us into this unholy mess. So WTF are this Labour government chasing them. Sorry, rant over. |
3 Sep
11:03am, 3 Sep 2024
11,564 posts
|
Fields
uid="103663">Controversial opinion, but it's not those receiving UC, WFA, Council Tax single person benefits, reduced bus fares, reduced train fares that have got us into this unholy mess. So WTF are this Labour government chasing them. Sorry, rant over.</q> Starmer hates poor people more than alpacas |
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3 Sep
11:09am, 3 Sep 2024
6,339 posts
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paulcook
I'm prepared to wait to judge once he makes decisions (+ve or -ve), but if some or all of those potential changes go ahead, it's not even about going after poor people. It's so many people just going about their lives and livelihoods.
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3 Sep
11:24am, 3 Sep 2024
45,909 posts
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SPR
I think JB's point is that the WFA is paid to deal with hardship and therefore it probably shouldn't just be paid universally if there's a way not to. The quote I've seen is that using PC is a mean means test though. My assumption is the single person council tax discount is an acknowledgement of a single person costing the council less (in theory). |
3 Sep
11:41am, 3 Sep 2024
32,766 posts
|
macca 53
I’m with @paulcook on this one. If Ms Reeves doesn’t offer something other than jam tomorrow to the less well off in her budget, I suspect the next election will be lost already - and she’s writing the Tories election literature for them.
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3 Sep
11:49am, 3 Sep 2024
5,599 posts
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J2R
JB, do you know where in Norfolk your son got his GI infection? I'm a Norfolk resident who likes to swim, so it would be handy to know where to avoid.
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3 Sep
12:11pm, 3 Sep 2024
25,495 posts
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larkim
You could make single occupancy council tax discount eligible for "claim" and means test the claim. But adding means testing to council tax would be adding a complexity that doesn't currently exist and it would almost certainly cause difficulties for some people who, for whatever reason, struggle with accessing the sorts of systems that allow people to claim reductions etc. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but equally there are Ferrari owning single men in expensive penthouses who are benefiting from the reduction in the same way as a those at the opposite end of the financial spectrum. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but any "flat" benefits like that should at least be challenged to consider whether maintaining them without any means testing is a good idea. It happened with "family allowance" (or whatever it was called back then) a few years, certainly for our family it just removed a free and unneeded source of cash because economically my wife and I can stand on our own two feet relatively comfortably. My better half grumbled when it disappeared, but I think it was the right thing. (It's a bone of contention between us, in respect of our disabled son, that many of the things that we get "discounts" on, such as venue tickets, I argue we would be paying for in any event at "full price" if he didn't have the disabilities, so it feels wrong to take the discount. Over the years she's beaten me into submission and I reluctantly accept that if the local theatre wants to give us a free seat because we are his "carers" then that's their choice, but if I was married to myself I'd be asking the cashier to take two full price tickets from us instead. Another piece of evidence of my moral weakness.) |
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3 Sep
12:20pm, 3 Sep 2024
6,340 posts
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paulcook
Perhaps I'm being stupid or naive, but the 25% reduction isn't some kind of bonus. Council tax is two-fold, taxing the house and taxing the individual. The 25% is to ensure those living alone aren't paying double. In some respects, those who benefit are adults living in 3+ occupancy really. But it's (now) an archaic tax probably no longer fit for purpose because it was never really thought through properly and the bandings for one are just plain wrong. |
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