Changes to benefits attacked by 
councils as ‘poll tax on the poor’

Local authorities across the region are finalising arrangements to deal with the loss of council tax benefit, which will be scrapped as part of Government changes from April 1 this year.

But council leaders have warned the changes will lead to the most vulnerable having to choose between buying food and fuel or paying the demands of the local authority.

Under the current system, the Department for Work and Pensions fully funds council tax benefit, but in 2013/14 councils will receive a lump sum from Whitehall to run their own scheme of support.

This sum will be 10 per cent less than the Government paid out for the benefit in 2012/13, however, meaning Sheffield, which claimed £55m this year, will be left with at least a £5.5m shortfall.

The Government has stipulated that pensioners who currently claim council tax benefit must be protected, but people of working age who pay no council tax at present will have to contribute.

In Sheffield, around 30,000 households will be forced to pay 23 per cent of their council tax bill, meaning that a family in a Band A home must find £225 next year, when this year they paid nothing.

Speaking at a meeting yesterday where the city’s “council tax support scheme” was approved, Coun Mazher Iqbal, the authority’s cabinet member for communities said welfare reform was “in chaos”.

He added: “We are being pushed into a corner. Come April we will be faced with the grotesque spectre of this council, without a penny to spare, pursuing people without a penny to spare.”

Councils have been forced to pass on the Government cut to council tax support because they are all struggling with huge budget cuts. Sheffield must save £50m next year while Leeds must cut £51m.

The situation is reflected at authorities across Yorkshire, with even smaller rural councils like Tory-led Craven struggling with “difficult decisions” and warning things could get worse in future.

Announcing that all working age claimants in Craven would have to pay 8.5 per cent of their bills in the next financial year, leader Coun Chris Knowles-Fitton said the future was uncertain.

He added: “It is important that residents understand that the changes have been confirmed for 2013/14 only.

“We do not yet know what the future will bring, but will ensure that we monitor and review the impact in order that we always have the fairest and most appropriate support scheme possible.”

Coun Keith Wakefield, leader of Labour-controlled Leeds Council, said he believed the future position on council tax would get worse, and said the Government-imposed system was “storing up trouble”.

Under the Leeds council tax support scheme the city’s 40,000 working-age claimants will be asked to pay 19 per cent of their council tax bill, which is around £165 a year for a band A household, according to council figures.

Coun Wakefield said the scheme amounted to a “poll tax on the poor” and added: “The fact remains that this will severely impact on people who are working. Do they pay food bills or do they pay council tax?

“Looking at the figures for the future it looks like there will be a further cut next year which could be twice the scale of this year’s so there will be even less money available for support in future.

“The Government’s argument is next year less people will need to claim council tax support, but that is nonsense. That’s not what the economy is telling me.”

In Hull the council has limited the impact on working-age claimants to 8.5 per cent of their total council tax bill by taking a one-off grant from the Government, a strategy rejected by other councils including Sheffield and Leeds.

In Bradford, the grant from the Government was also rejected by Labour council leader David Green, who said claimants would have to pay 25 per cent more.