THE
Poll Tax is widely regarded as
the most iniquitous piece of legislation in modern times. But it had
one virtue which we are apt to forget. It was that if you are
entitled to vote in local elections you should be prepared to
contribute to the services the your town provides.
Its
replacement, Council Tax, alleviated
the major flaw in the Poll
Tax, the differing
abilities of families
to pay. Nonetheless the
idea that there is at least a tenuous link between voting in local
elections and paying your Council Tax lingers on. Which
brings me to the question of Councillor ‘Two Votes
Rana’.
We have all been expressing our
outrage that a Councillor can so blatently breach electoral law and
not think it a resigning issue. But there is another way of looking
at this. Here’s the question.
Did
Faisal Rana pay the Council Tax levied for the year 2018/19 on the
property which is identified by the address he used to vote a second
time on 3 May 2018?
A 58-year-old community campaigner against the Tory 'bedroom tax', recently won a council tax appeal at the Valuation Tribunal of England sitting in Manchester in 2014.
Steve Anthony Fisher, a self-employed man from Dukinfield, appealed against a decision of his local authority Tameside Council, to bill him full council tax under its council tax scheme. Under a previous scheme Mr. Fisher had received council tax benefit in full. However, when the council changed its scheme in 2013, he was shocked to find that the council now expected him to pay full council tax even though his circumstances had not changed. He was also hit with a double whammy, when the council demanded a further £12.50 charge for his Tory bedroom tax because he was deemed to have a spare bedroom. Both charges together amounted to 50% of his disposable income.
Mr. Fisher has lived at his two bedroom house for the last thirty years. Believing that he had suffered an injustice and had been treated harshly, he appealed to the Valuation Tribunal. After two separate hearings, the Tribunal decided to allow his appeal in part, because the 'billing authority' (Tameside Council) had incorrectly applied their own scheme in relation to Mr. Fisher. In short they did not know their arse from their elbow.
In his promulgated decision, Mr. P. Johnson (Tribunal Chairman), made the following obiter:
This case raised potential
grounds for Judicial Review of the Scheme and potential for challenge
under the Articles and Protocols of the European Convention on Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
While Mr Fisher's primary and
legitimate concern was with the principal that he should be deemed to
possess more income than he actually received, he noted that the Tameside
area (or at least a substantial part of it) is an area in which Universal
Credit has been introduced, but does not yet apply to all persons claiming
Universal Credit. He believes that The Scheme has been drafted to dovetail
with the Universal Credit Scheme, copying heavily from that scheme, but
has failed to ensure fair treatment to persons not in receipt of Universal
Credit.
The tribunal could not
consider those matters, but recommends that Tameside MBC give urgent
reconsideration to the wording of The Scheme, in light of the hardship
caused to some persons claiming under the Scheme.
Given the Chairman's comments, Mr. Fisher would be keen to pursue the matter to Judical Review if legal aid was available. Alternatively, an organisation like C.A.B. or welfare rights, might want to investigate the matter further as it seems to affect many more people living in Tameside. Mr. Fisher can be contacted on starlord@starlord-enterprises.freeserve.co.uk
THOUSANDS of low-income earners are being hauled into court to pay council tax bills in a vicious attack on Britain’s most vulnerable families. In a new measure branded 'Poll Tax Mk 2', an estimated 1.9 million people who did not previously have to pay the tax are now liable for between 10 and 30 per cent of the full bill, reports the Mirror. And queues have formed outside courts as Britain’s poorest respond to threatening demands to pay.
The Government’s latest attack on the poor is a result of the introduction in April of the Welfare Reform Act. Families have been shocked that local authorities have started chasing up bills for the next 12 months so soon after the introduction of the sweeping changes due to Government cutbacks. Since April 1 council tax benefit has been replaced by council tax support, and responsibility for that is switching from central government to councils.
Hilary Benn, Shadow Secretary for Local Government, said: 'We warned the Government that their Poll Tax Mark 2 would lead to people on low incomes being chased through the courts for sums of money that they simply don’t have. “It will push some into the arms of payday lenders and loan sharks. But David Cameron and George Osborne refused to listen and went ahead at the same time as they cut the top rate of tax. How out of touch can you get?'
Around 232 local authorities have devised schemes that will demand council tax from everyone regardless of income and only 58 will retain current levels of support. In a snapshot survey of councils in England and Wales it has been found they are wasting no time in chasing struggling families for the money. Tameside council in Greater Manchester has issued 3,691 summons to households who paid NO council tax before the changes.
Single parent Charlotte Hughes, 41, received a summons saying she had to pay £141.66. When she arrived at Tameside Magistrates' Court, she found dozens of people queuing outside. She said: 'My priority is finding money to get food for my child. Other people might not think it is much money but it is for me. It was humiliating going to court. We had to queue up before we were herded into a room. It was like a cattle market.'
In Cornwall around 20,000 people who previously had their council tax paid in full are now being asked to pay at least 25 per cent. Six thousand are now in arrears and 1,000 have had a court summons so far.
This week Cornwall’s council finance portfolio holder Alex Folkes said: “In the case of the very poorest, that is very bad news. 'Anyone who has problems, get in touch. We will listen. We don’t want people to go down the court system.'
Last year Peterborough City Council issued summons to 3,538 households but this figure has doubled since the new welfare reforms.
The Resolution Foundation, a non-profit research organisation, said in a recent report that a typical bill had risen by between £100 and £250 a year, but some it could be as much as £600 more.
Alex Hurrell, a senior analyst at the foundation, said: 'We warned that thousands of low-paid working people would face the biggest increases in council tax. Now we’re seeing councils with dwindling resources chase some of the hardest-pressed people in the country. Sadly we’re likely to see more scenes like these in the coming months and years.'
In a typical example on Friday 1,079 liability orders were issued at Truro magistrates court on behalf of Cornwall Council to people who hadn’t paid their council tax. Many were first-timers unable to foot the bill.
Jason Simmons, 46, from Redruth, was summoned to court for non-payment. He said: 'I’ve managed to pay £30 of it, but there is no way I’ll be able to pay the rest.'
Opposition to the Tories iniquitous bedroom tax is increasing daily. Although there have been no riots as of yet, parallels have never the less been drawn with the campaign against Thatcher's dreaded poll tax, which was ultimately defeated because of mass opposition to it by people who took to the streets in their thousands to protest.
In the North West 43% of people living in council or housing association homes who receive housing benefit will be affected. Around 110,000 will be worse off by £728 a year when the bedroom tax comes into effect in April. Hundreds of thousands face the threat of eviction if they cannot pay the tax which applies to all people of working age in receipt of housing benefit who live in social housing and who are deemed to have spare bedrooms.
Although the Tory-led government say this measure is necessary to free-up social housing that is under-occupied i.e. spare bedrooms so that people can move to smaller dwellings and to save money, the current demand for housing is such that there are not enough one or two bedroom properties for people to move to. Critics of the bedroom tax, say this severe shortage of social rented housing, will drive people into the private rented sector and will increase the housing benefit bill.
In Tameside, the Registered Social Landlord (RSL), New Charter Housing Trust Ltd, own around 14,500 properties and it is expected that the bedroom tax will have a direct impact on 1,700 New Charter tenants. New Charter boss, Ian Munro, believes that the tax is 'unfair and incompetent' and he has written to the Prime Minister calling on him to axe the bedroom tax. In his letter which was published in the New Charter owned Tameside Reporter, he pleaded on behalf of his tenants:
"Tenants are telling us that they are very worried not only about being able to meet household bills, but also the prospect of being forced out of what is more than a house - it is their home....Equally (the changes) are incompetent as they will not achieve the Government's objective of better use of social housing, and in forcing a migration to the private sector will increase rather than reduce the Housing Benefit bill."
Some time ago, New Charter which was formed in 2000, to own and manage former council homes in Tameside, set up a 'Specialist Welfare Reform Advice Team' (SWAT) to advise tenants about their available options concerning the bedroom tax. Although neither Munro or the SWAT 'sink or swim' team, have given assurances that tenants who fail pay their bedroom tax will not be evicted, it is known that the team who have carried out 1,800 tenant interviews since last August, have advised tenants to eat less to economise in order to pay their Tory bedroom tax. In Manchester, Eastlands Homes another RSL, have written to their tenants asking them if they can afford to smoke, drink, play bingo and afford Sky TV, as well as pay their bedroom tax.
While it is understandable that New Charter and Eastlands Homes tenants should feel affronted by being asked to eat less food or to forgo fags and booze to pay their Tory bedroom tax, it should be clear that despite what boy George says about us all being in it together, it is people on benefits, public expenditure cuts and job losses in local government that are paying off the budget deficit brought about by the incompetence and greed of bankers and governments. Despite cuts in benefits and public services, the government last year cut taxes for their rich chums by £3bn-a-year. In April, 8,000 millionaires are due to receive an average tax cut of over £107,000. It also estimated that tax evasion in this country costs the exchequer around £70bn-a-year in lost revenue.
One New Charter tenant affected by the Tory bedroom tax, is 56-year-old Steve Fisher, from Dukinfield, who has lived at his two bedroom home since 1984. As a self-employed person who currently receives £52 pw in Working Tax Credit (WTC), he has been told by Tameside Council that he must pay £12 pw bedroom tax because he has a bedroom extra to his needs and £13 pw council tax, out of his £52 pw income. Mr. Fisher who is campaigning against the bedroom tax, told NV blog:
"Under the Council Tax Benefit scheme (CTB), which has now been abolished, I received full council tax and housing benefit because I am on a low income. Some years ago, I chose to go self-employed rather than claim unemployment benefit, but am now penalised by changes to council tax and the introduction of the bedroom tax. Tameside Council have replaced CTB with their very own 'Council Tax Support Scheme' (CTSS) which presumes that as a self-employed person, I am receiving a far greater income that I do and therefore, they expect me to pay full council tax. As from April, everyone with exception of pensioners, who is in receipt of a council tax discount, will have pay at least 20% of council tax. This measure introduced by a Labour council, attacks some of the weakest and poorest members of the community. Although the Labour council in Tameside are cutting jobs and services and increasing the council tax this year by 3.5%, the council refuses to reduce the number of Tameside councillors or to cut its own allowances and perks. What this council and government are seeking to do, is nothing short of daylight robbery."
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