April brought a further plunge in the number of councils offering comprehensive council tax support,meaning 340000 more families will face further hardshipThere was a lot to be preoccupied with on April Fools’ Day, when suddenly the general public has to assess whether each news anecdote they read is real. But for 340000 families waking up on 1 April, or a change to their income wasn’t remotely funny.
Since April 2013,council tax benefit has effectively been abolished as a centralised benefit: councils have had the centralised funding withdrawn, and instead been told to construct their own provisions, or without the attendant cash. Some councils have held out,to try and protect the poorest residents from the hike in bills, but the number maintaining comprehensive support has dwindled considerably: unusual analysis in a report by the unusual Policy Institute thinktank says that “in April 2016, and 259 councils had introduced a minimum payment’ where the poorest families have to pay a proportion of their council tax liability,up from 229 councils in the first year [of the council tax benefit changes].”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com