COUNCILS PICK WIDOWS' POCKETS

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: EXPRESS UK

WIDOWS AND DIVORCEES ARE BEING TARGETED FOR A HUGE RISE IN THEIR COUNCIL TAX BILLS.

Labour-run councils want the eight million people living alone to pay the same rate as couples or households with several working adults.

Their plan to scrap the 25 per cent single person discount would push up bills by nearly £360 a year on the average Band D home. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles last night condemned the move.

He said the unfair “widows tax” would affect millions of pensioners living alone after the death of their spouse. Single parents would also be hit.

“There is clearly a well-orchestrated campaign being run by the Labour Party to target the elderly, single mothers and the most vulnerable,” Mr Pickles said. “They want to punish people who have worked hard all their lives and paid their taxes simply because they live on their own. 

There is a gross sense of injustice at raising taxes that could force people out of their homes. This is a widows tax and shows how out of touch Labour is.”

The demand by Labour-run town halls to scrap the discount, which has been in place since Council Tax was introduced in 1993, emerged from a Government consultation on how to save 10 per cent of the cost of Council Tax benefit. In scores of submissions from Labour councils, town hall chiefs argued that working single people or pensioners not on benefits could afford to pay the full council tax bill to cushion a £500million cutback on benefit claimants.

The London borough of Southwark said: “The unconditional award of a single person discount regardless of income seems inappropriate when asking local authorities to manage a 10 per cent reduction in funding while protecting vulnerable claimants.”

Oldham’s treasurer Steven Mair said the “universal discount irrespective of income” should go, while Bradford’s strategy delivery manager Mark Widdowson said its exclusion from debate was a “major missed opportunity”.

Among those backing the call were Luton, Doncaster, Bedford, Colchester, Burnley, South Tyneside, Exeter, Sheffield and Oxford councils as well as the London boroughs of Islington, Hounslow, Brent, Harrow and Newham. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It beggars belief that some town halls are suggesting abolishing one of the few reliefs on Council Tax at a time when so many are struggling with that incredibly burdensome bill.

“Getting rid of single occupancy discount would be a tax rise for millions of people in order to sustain generous council tax benefits for a select few. Council Tax has almost doubled in the last decade. Some local authorities need to stop treating taxpayers as an endless source of revenue and focus on finding savings instead.”

Of the 23 million households in England, eight million claim the discount. Of that total an estimated 560,000 are working single parents. A further 2.9 million homes are occupied by a single person over 65. The average Band D bill is £1,439.

In its submission, South Tyneside council said it would be “easier to collect an increase in Council Tax as a result of a discount being withdrawn from someone who can afford it than someone on benefit who can’t”.

Kirklees council in Yorkshire said: “Not all those in receipt of single person discount can be said to need the 25 per cent reduction in liability.”Stockton-on-Tees council calculated “removal of the automatic entitlement of 25 per cent single person discount would generate 2.5 times the 10 per cent savings target”.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy said: “Given the costs of the single person discount scheme it has to be asked whether this continues to be a fair way to use limited resources when others on much lower levels of income are facing reductions in help and therefore increase in the amounts they will have to pay in respect of Council Tax.”

The political row over council tax discounts emerged as Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith vowed to overturn defeats inflicted on the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords. Bishops led the revolt against plans for a £26,000 benefit cap and watered down proposals on child maintenance and Employment Support Allowance. The Bill returns to the Commons on Wednesday.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX.

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