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Our research with the Guardian: Poorest homes face £120 council tax rise as safety net goes
The Guardian report says:
"More than 670,000 of the poorest households in England will face an increase in council tax of £120 a year on average from Tuesday as the government withdraws a benefits safety net, a survey of local authorities has revealed.
Using freedom of information requests, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the campaigning organisation False Economy found that from April, 83 local authorities are reducing protection for vulnerable residents.
All councils in the country replied, giving the first complete picture of how this measure, which critics have called another poll tax, is affecting the poor.
Ministers cut funding for the means-tested council tax benefit by £500m last year and instructed each local authority to decide how the reduced benefit pot should be distributed.
However, to cushion the blow ministers offered £100m in "transitional grants" to councils that designed schemes that would offer some protection to the poor.
This money will not be replenished, so this year will be the first that the government will no longer take the poorest out of council tax. Of the 83 councils reducing support to the most vulnerable, more than 50 relied on the government's transitional grant funding to provide welfare relief."
Spreadsheet of FOI responses here (xls)
- Posted by: False Economy at 7:50am on 31 March 2014
- Filed under: Benefits, Local government
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