12 June (Part 2) - Bexley Council has plans to make the poor even worse off
Bexley Council is required by law to reduce the amount of Council Tax paid by
the poorer members of society, those on benefits. It can set its own rules and
since the scheme was introduced in 2013 there has been an erosion of the amount
of support on offer. What started as a maximum of 85% reduction by Bexley
Council is now down to 80%. They have in mind making the poor pay even more next year.
Another of their Press Releases refers to
yet another Consultation.
I’m pretty sure it won’t be a genuine consultation exercise, if it is it will be a first
since BiB was launched and it doesn’t take a genius to work out what Bexley’s motive is.
They want to keep the money for themselves.
I
completed the survey - well up to a point, I clicked the neither agree nor disagree
button right the way through - so I can tell you exactly what Bexley Council has in mind.
They want to discount third and subsequent dependent children from the
calculation, they want to attack the disabled by no longer discounting any
‘additional premium’ they may be entitled to, so that anyone in receipt of it
will have it clawed back through a reduction in Council Tax support.
Finally, Bexley Council wants to withdraw Council Tax support totally from under 21 year olds.
May I suggest that everyone completes the survey? It won’t stop Bexley Council
attacking the poor and disadvantaged but it may stop them being able to claim
that they had the support of local residents. Sometimes responses to Bexley’s consultations are
numbered only in double figures and the suspicion must be that most of the responses
are from Conservative Councillors.