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Council Tax rant

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    Council Tax rant

    The thing that irritates me about Council Tax is that the council are quick to say that the increases (I think ours were 17% the year before) are not being matched by the government, but when you start to look at the reasons for the large increases, two familiar items rear their ugly heads:-

    Housing benefits granted (doubled in 2004/2005 budget)
    Council Tax benefits granted

    It's not the services such as street cleaning that we're paying the increases for - it's the welfare state yet again as parts of "new" Liebour's doomed social engineering experiment.

    I saw a prog on ITV yesterday where a record number of people racked up credit card bills to pay for holidays in Torremolinos, couldn't afford the mortgage, lost the house and then went cap in hand to get a council house paid for by people who were actually responsible with their money.

    You just couldn't make it up...
    If you think my attitude stinks, you should smell my fingers.

    #2
    Don't forget council workers pensions Hyper - we've got to pay for those as well. Then again it is only 'fair' isn't it?

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      #3
      From my limited observation I noticed that council tax started raising fast after Govt introduced new formulae used to calculate amount of money the Govt gives to councils. It must have been a pure coincidence that NL's own councils were well off, but others see cut in funding. And this cut has to be matched by the Council. Additionally Govt creates all sort of benefits that fall on the council, and the extra amounts are not necesserily going to the councils.

      Now what I _REALLY_ want to know is this:

      Out of £1100 paid every year in Brum about £25-30 go to the firemen and £60-70 to the police. Now these are useful services and when I look how little I pay every year for them I can't stop thinking that if they asked to DOUBLE amount of money for the police then I would not hestitate to do it.

      But what the FK they spend £1000 on? What kind of perverse logic makes them separate SMALLER amounts like police/firemen and hide the rest into OTHER column? Just WTF is going on, ffs, the OTHER column should not exceed those specifically listed.

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        #4
        Originally posted by AtW
        But what the FK they spend £1000 on? What kind of perverse logic makes them separate SMALLER amounts like police/firemen and hide the rest into OTHER column? Just WTF is going on, ffs, the OTHER column should not exceed those specifically listed.
        The council is legally obliged to tell you where they spend the money. They send you a leaflet with the bill, and the information is also on the council web site.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by planetit
          The council is legally obliged to tell you where they spend the money.
          This is the same as saying that there is a legal budget which states where money goto, but feck really knows what exactly happens.

          Why are they explicitly splitting out fire/police service that cost £100 and then have OTHER charge of £1000, total of £1,100?

          Can you explain this strange logic of picking two useful services that cost bugger all and keeping the rest quiet?

          --

          IMO -- people should pay for services they use (garbage) or general "insurance" like service -- police, firemen.

          Comment


            #6
            AtW, what are you doing paying council tax? I thought you were renting....
            Chico, what time is it?

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              #7
              Originally posted by Rebecca Loos
              AtW, what are you doing paying council tax? I thought you were renting....
              Coucil tax applies to all households and only all-student and benefit ones get free ride.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Rebecca Loos
                AtW, what are you doing paying council tax? I thought you were renting....
                Because most rental contracts don't include the council tax payments thus tennant pays it?

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                  #9
                  no, that's not what I meant! Just that when you're renting, it's all so easy to avoid paying it.
                  But hey it's your problem - if you want to subsidise your council's legal payout department, be my guest.
                  Chico, what time is it?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Rebecca Loos
                    Just that when you're renting, it's all so easy to avoid paying it.
                    And how exactly you do it when you rent out whole house for a long period of time?

                    You know what happened when I missed one monthly payment? Coucil did not try to call, did not do jack, they simply applied to magistrates court and they set a date for hearing, which would have certainly been lost, but they offer a way to settle - pay quickly + £50 costs. That's how Brum council works.

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