Hyndburn Labour Group

Hyndburn residents face rises to Council Tax from April 2013

Hyndburn Labour are deeply concerned by the impact the localisation of Council Tax Benefit will have on Hyndburn residents.

Millions of people around the country, including here in Hyndburn, are facing rises in their council tax from April 2013 on the orders of Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

The move will see Council Tax Benefit scrapped and replaced with a grant to councils that only covers 90% of the cost.

Local Authorities must now work out how to pay for this shortfall, and communicate these changes to residents.

However, the government have instructed local authorities, like Hyndburn, not to cut the benefit for pensioners. They are also unable to reduce the single person’s discount. This leaves councils with the option of reducing eligibility criteria for working-age people or filling the funding gap themselves. It is unlikely that any council will be able to afford the latter option.

Hyndburn's new scheme is currently out for public consultation, the consultation ends on 4 November. However, the main change is likely to be that everyone of working age will be expected to pay at least 15% of his or her council tax liability. In the past the unemployed, disabled, full-time carers and people on low incomes would not have had to pay their full council tax – now everyone of working age will be forced to contribute.

Cllr Miles Parkinson, Leader of Hyndburn Labour Group, said:
“Eric Pickles has lectured councillors that they have a moral duty not to increase council tax bills but in fact he has been planning a £450 million council tax bombshell of his own by increasing the bills paid by people on low incomes. Just as happened with the poll tax, Hyndburn Council will be forced to chase people on low incomes for money they simply don’t have.”

Hilary Benn MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said:
“Local authorities face a terrible dilemma. Do they increase council taxes on the working poor – over 760,000 people nationally work but have lower council tax because their income is low – or the disabled or families with young children?
“The Budget killed off David Cameron’s claim that we are all in this together, but to see tax cuts for millionaires and tax increases for those on low incomes planned to come in on the very same day next April tells us everything we need to know about whose side the coalition is on.”