Views wanted over council tax benefit in Pendle (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What a false exercise...pure PR
stunt. People don't have a say in this matter whatsoever...It's being thrown on us all whether you are foolish enough to think opinion has any relevance or not.

Why spend all this time, money and effort on such a pseudo consultation exercise when the decisions have all ready been made and probably the policy documents have been drafted too. It seems to me that true democracy is something that is promoted in the corner's of the world where it will never happen, whilst at the same time we play lip service to it in the UK.

Why not increase council tax by about 5 to 8 % I'm sure that would cover the short fall.

Anyone old enough to remember the old rates system?

Far cheaper, at least where i live, and council services were much better.

20% of council tax goes to pay the generous pensions of ex local gov workers. After that, a large amount is just squandered. Senior managers on ridiculous salaries, and all manner of profligate nonsense.

Do not forget, under Bliar/Brown, council tax increased by a whopping 70%. A bit more in some areas.

Local government is long overdue a radical shake-up.

Council tax is legitimised theft.

w w w.nonjob.tumblr.com

HairyBowls wrote:
What a false exercise...pure PR
stunt. People don't have a say in this matter whatsoever...It's being thrown on us all whether you are foolish enough to think opinion has any relevance or not.

You are partially right........Council
's have to consult as the Govt won't accept a scheme unless Council's have thoroughly consulted.
*
The upshot is that the Govt are forcing a 20% cut in Council Tax benefit to those of working age (OAP's are exempted by the Govt).
*
So, that will mean an increase of about £190 per annum for those folk who currently receive Council Tax Benefit.

nonjob wrote:
Anyone old enough to remember the old rates system?

Far cheaper, at least where i live, and council services were much better.

20% of council tax goes to pay the generous pensions of ex local gov workers. After that, a large amount is just squandered. Senior managers on ridiculous salaries, and all manner of profligate nonsense.

Do not forget, under Bliar/Brown, council tax increased by a whopping 70%. A bit more in some areas.

Local government is long overdue a radical shake-up.

Council tax is legitimised theft.

w w w.nonjob.tumblr.com

Blair/Brown didn't abolish the rates system did they nonjob ? Remind us all who did !

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The only fair system was Maggies poll tax. The more adults in the house using council facilities, the more money raised from that household.
Ironically it was about the only thing that she did right, apart from kicking the Argies out of the Falklands, in all her years in office but it eventually led to her downfall because of complaints from the none working but overbreeding families.

Benjis mum wrote:
The only fair system was Maggies poll tax. The more adults in the house using council facilities, the more money raised from that household.
Ironically it was about the only thing that she did right, apart from kicking the Argies out of the Falklands, in all her years in office but it eventually led to her downfall because of complaints from the none working but overbreeding families.

The old rates system was fair, poll tax certainly was anything but...can you imagine how each person paying 250 back then would be better off under that system now? It would be be over a grand per head each by now...dont you think we are taxed enough?

english rose 1 wrote:

nonjob wrote:
Anyone old enough to remember the old rates system?

Far cheaper, at least where i live, and council services were much better.

20% of council tax goes to pay the generous pensions of ex local gov workers. After that, a large amount is just squandered. Senior managers on ridiculous salaries, and all manner of profligate nonsense.

Do not forget, under Bliar/Brown, council tax increased by a whopping 70%. A bit more in some areas.

Local government is long overdue a radical shake-up.

Council tax is legitimised theft.

w w w.nonjob.tumblr.com

Blair/Brown didn't abolish the rates system did they nonjob ? Remind us all who did !

Believe me, i am no fan of the tories.

But Bliar/Brown were terrible.. They created the illusion of prosperity with runaway over-spending. Which is why council tax rose on an exponential curve under their leadership.

Now we are being totally ripped-off to fund the lifestyles of pretend execs in the councils on £130K a year.

If this doesn't make your blood f****** curdle. . .

@HairyBowls,
The poll tax was the fairest system possible, the rates per person were higher than they should have been but that was the only thing wrong with it.
If there are more adults in a house they create more waste for the refuse to collect and they can make more use of the public services.

When we had the poll tax my mother was a widowed pensioner living alone. She had to pay the same rates as the house next door where there were two working parents with their three adult children who were all working.
How could that possibly be a fair system.
I dont think they even had the 25% reduction for single occupancy back then like council tax has now.

The current council tax system is very unfair as you could live in a high banded property that you bought when you were earning a good wage then get made redundant or become unfit to work and have a lower income than someone with a higher income who lived in a lower banded home, yet you would have to pay more.
Or two people may have had the same income over their working lives but one may have used his to buy a nice house but the other may have preferred to spend his cash on a cheaper house so he could have a nicer car, more holidays and drink more.
Why should one have to pay more council tax than the other in that scenario ?

Benjis mum wrote:
The only fair system was Maggies poll tax. The more adults in the house using council facilities, the more money raised from that household.
Ironically it was about the only thing that she did right, apart from kicking the Argies out of the Falklands, in all her years in office but it eventually led to her downfall because of complaints from the none working but overbreeding families.

I remember a similar comment to yours about the poll tax a while back from a 'R.Sole'. Perhaps you are related?

I dont think I know anyone named R. Sole, pendlesider.

He or she sounds like a caring and intelligent person who thinks about the whole picture rather than being selfish enough to think which system benefits themself the most.

Or maybe he or she was a patriot who was proud of the job that our brave lads and lasses did in liberating the Falkland Islands.

If so I would be happy to know them on either count, as he or she seems to be the type of person that one would enjoy having a drink with while having an intelligent conversation.

Another "public" waste of time, effort, and no doubt money ????

The "old rates" worked fine, until someone thought of the poll tax, and I was one that rebelled !!! My rates tripled at the time, terrace house, and where most people lived!!! but then the Govt had a re-think, and after 2 years brought the "fairer" council tax in ???

So the plan worked !!! triple the taxes, then bring them own after everyone complained, and the result was, the "rates, poll, council tax" system had doubled in 2 years, which most people felt amicable with !!! ???? !!!

But as a fellow poster has already raised, we pay for inflated pension's out of our "poll" taxes, and for highly paid idiot's for wastin money ?????

The rebellion of this Country draws ever closer, you cannot treat th people of this Borough, County, Country like "pleb's" !!!!

The Internet is the enemy of the state, because the information some of us read ever day is there for the masses, but he sheep refuse to believe these orror stories of Chief Exec of Pendle on £135k, 52 year old's retied on FULL pension's, and WE are paying, and all this when the rest of us are having to watch our budget's !!!!

PENDLE Council you have been warned, we know what your up to,change your thinking or ????????

@will12

Would you still have rebelled if the amunt charged had been a more reasonable amount say around £150 to £200 per person rather than the £300 they came up with.
As I said earlier the system was fairer as it was a charge per adult rather than on the value of the house but the amount per person was way too high.

Surely you must agree that it was more unfair for them to be charging people like my mother, living alone on her pension, the same amount in her terraced house as her neighbours with five working adults living there were paying.