Eligible low income Isle of Wight residents could still be given support to pay their council tax bills. The local council tax scheme has been running for more than 10 years and provides a 70% discount on council tax bills, meaning residents pay the remaining 30%. The level of support dipped in recent years but was restored to 70% under the Alliance Administration in May, to provide more support to residents who are experiencing financial difficulty amid the cost of living crisis. Last week the Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet unanimously agreed to recommend keeping the level of support at the same, ahead of a budget-setting process which was described as ‘daunting and difficult’ as the authority looks to balance its books. The council says financial backing to the scheme comes from the Government but has reduced year on year, leaving the Island authority with a bigger bill to foot. If the council decided to increase or decrease the support given by 5% it would either cost or make the council an additional £366,649. The debt relating to the local council tax support schemes is now more than £2.5million, as those on the scheme struggle to pay the reduced levels. The council says it is collecting some of the debt owed to it and will continue that work. A consultation was held earlier this year to gather feedback on the scheme and of the 201 responses, 152 people disagreed with reducing the support to 65%. The majority of respondents to the survey were those on the scheme and more than two-thirds said if the support was increased to a 75% discount it would make their payments more affordable. The final decision to increase or decrease support will be made at the Isle of Wight Council’s full meeting in January, ahead of the main budget-setting session. An exceptional hardship fund also exists within the council which offers further help.
COUNCIL TAX SUPPORT FOR LOW INCOME FAMILIES COULD INCREASE OR DECREASE
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And anyone who doesn’t qualify can just struggle on
There’s always an ass hole and today Ben you win 1st prize
You sound rather aggressive, hit a nerve?. Peasants should stand on their own two feet instead of sponging off the state. Whilst I am not struggling and enjoying life ie holidays abroad and meals out why on earth should I should and a lot of people supplement a losers lifestyle. Get off your bone idle ass and work.
Well said why should we work 45+ hours a week and some people can’t even be bothered to work get 70% discount on their council tax should make it the other way round that would get them to work
You’re off your head!Aggressive?LMFAO
So those who use the council’s services most pay the least. Most of us are paying over £2k per month just to have our bins emptied.
Over £2K per month….. WOW, your house must be HUGE!
‘Low income’ does suggest this is not just for the benefit scroungers but also working people on lower wages, and I’d rather they got a discount rather than quitting their jobs because they would be better off on benefits.
why Dont you lot ever moan about the illegal immigrants?We pay for
Doesn’t sound like you pay for them sounds like you don’t even work
Difficult choices are per usual.
not really – the councils problem is its atrocious ability to allocate capital efficiently.
Yes, there are. At least the king did not have to pay his inheritance tax. He needs every peney of that £240 million tax bill, his estate only earns £24 Million a year, poor thing.
And now we know where another chunk of our Council tax goes ,we are supporting the floating bridge, all the upgrades in the council offices and the fleet of electric cars , mobile phones laptops and a great chunk goes to subsidise those on benefits, so why don’t our dearly beloved council, do means testing, I know some deserve help , but I begrudge paying for their sky/ Netflix, mobile phone upgrades….
They are better off than those of us who are working….
speaking from experience?
Me thinks Jodie doth protest too much.
Likely has a buggy full and living well by doing zero or 16 hours a week and getting all rent, c.tax, free school meals, uniforms, extra help with food and energy, free prescriptions free dental care, free transport for the clones to be taken to school and all the other perks of just emptying a womb when poor, so getting others to fund not only the clones but the parent, or parents if the sperm donner is known or still around too.
They do Means testing for benefits, bank statements ETC, ETC Its usually pretty thorough. Of course some dishonest people will slip through the net, it happens. Maybe if the council were better housekeepers everybody would benefit. You know ,sink the floating bridge, stop employing chief executives on obscene salaries. to name but two
Many people don’t just ‘slip’ through the net, they ‘wriggle through’.
The most common lies are ‘ Single parent’ yet never sleep alone. So gain an income from some undeclared ‘lover’ who will never be named as any of the children’s father.
Working in nail bars, hotels, beauty treatment shops etc but for cash payments, thus then getting all rent, council tax, school meals, heating and food allowance extra payment, free dental care and prescriptions, free school uniforms , and hundreds a week in old tax credits or now, Universal credit as well as their wage.
Lying to get ‘sick pay’, the latest dodge is ‘mental illness’ easy to fake, harder than the old ‘back ache’ lie, and nothing physical to show up, read up symptoms, etc.
Must admit, the fleet of ‘pool cars’ outside the Council offices is ridiculous!
If the council stopped spending a million a year on SEND kids taxis and made the actual parents pay for their kids to go to school, then they could offer 10% reduction instead of 5% and still have just over a quarter of a million left
It is several millions per year and it should be stopped immediately. A disgraceful waste of money.
It’s around 1.7M per year which is still surprising. I have two children in primary school and I do not know of any child who is provided a taxi.
Because the taxi drivers are working a scam and charging crazy amounts. They know the council are stupid and will pay anything. Have you ever used a taxi on the island? I got a quote of not much change out of £50 going from St Helens to Newport in rush hour. Almost choked on my porridge.
A lot of the people who qualify for this help are pensioners. Not all of them are peasants either and many of them are disabled in one way or another and don’t qualify for PIP.so any additional help makes a great difference to their standard of living. And yes, eligibility for this help is means tested too. Not all of us have Sky Netflix or Amazon prime, we have to put up with 91 channels of rubbish (mainly) on Freeview and rely on a landline, which can actually work out dearer than a mobile.
It is madness paying for a landline. You can pay as little as £6 a month with giffgaff and £7.50 a month with Tesco mobile. Buy the cheapest phone and save a fortune.
Spongers don’t even pay the 30 percent . Over £2.5 million, is owed in arrears.
Time to abolish Council Tax
it is unfair and out of date.
And also abolish the council because it is good for nothing. Just charge us for emptying the bins.
£2,000.00 a year to have our bins emptied is daylight robbery.
I wouldn’t mind, but the clumsy Fcukers leave a trail of rubbish behind them.
They should be charged for Flytipping
The amount of claimants swindling is abhorrent.
Every working person likely knows someone who is pretending to be a single parent, or lying about a disability, or know someone who is working on the sly and milking the overly generous benefit system.
That is WHY an endless flotilla of craft arrive here daily, they don’t come for our weather, but the easy life of knowing everytime the womb is emptied an easy, lazy lucrative life is a certainty, with home, c.tax and hundreds per week a certainty.
The benefits for those having children need cutting so ONLY wanted children are born, and the parents are not better off than if they were single by ‘having a kid’.
It would ease imms, and stop a few feral brats being born too.