One of the government's least publicised, but worst, changes to local government is the changes in Council Tax Benefit. These are being rushed through for implementation in April 2013, which effectively means that Councils will have had to respond to the government plans by the end of this year.
Central government is forcing each local authority to come up with its own scheme for Council Tax benefit, and abolishing the national scheme. At the same time, the money to pay for concessions is being cut by 10%. The April 2013 deadline means that the necessary scheme design and implementation is kept to an almost unfeasibly short time table.
Brent will be publishing its proposals for consultation in early June. This is the kind of subject that doesn't get much publicity, and then comes as a tremendous shock to the people affected, so I hope the word gets spread as widely as possible.
1 comment:
no other cut made by this government is as disgraceful as this one. The effect will be a new poll tax on the poorest. It will be a charge of 20-25% of current council tax, almost like raising council tax by 25% in one year. No council would dare to do that so why do it to those on the lowest income and force local authorities to take the blame?
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