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Brighton and Hove Conservatives campaign for a fairer deal for cities pensioners

Conservatives highlight effect of soaring council taxes in Brighton and Hove

                        New research this week has highlighted how Brighton and Hove’s pensioners have suffered from soaring council taxes. The new analysis compiled by Conservatives has revealed that for a typical pensioner couple in the city, 2/5ths of the increase in their basic state pension since 1997 has been snatched back in higher council taxes. For a typical single pensioner, 1/2 of their pension has been lost in rising council taxes alone.

 Councillor Brian Oxley, Conservative finance spokesman on Brighton and Hove City Council remarked,

“I am growing increasingly concerned about the impact of soaring council taxes on pensioners who are on fixed incomes. What Gordon Brown has added to the state pension, 2/5ths has been snatched back just in council tax alone for a pensioner couple in Brighton and Hove, and ½ for a single pensioner. Council tax benefit, supposed to help those on low incomes, isn’t working due to the Government’s increasing use of means-testing and complex paperwork.”

 Since 1997, the couples’ basic state pension has risen by £1,427 and by £892 for a single pensioner. Yet by contrast, council tax in Brighton and Hove has risen by £563 on Band D bills for a typical two-person household and £422 for a single household.

Nicholas Boles, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Hove and Portslade said: “Soaring council tax is the fault of the Labour Government, who have intentionally used it to raise the burden of taxation, by fiddling the system of local funding and loading extra burdens and bureaucracy on councils.

 “I also reject the Liberal Democrats’ flawed solution of a local income tax. Three quarters of all pensioners receive income from savings and investments, and this income would be taxed to the hilt under LibDem plans – discouraging people from saving for security in retirement.

“By contrast, Conservatives would end this fiddled local funding and cut back on the wasteful council red-tape. In addition, we would also give pensioners a fairer deal by increasing the basic state pension each year by earnings not prices. It’s time to reverse the spread of means-testing which many pensioners find unfair, complex and intrusive and give all of the cities pensioners a fair deal.”

Gordon Brown tried to bribe pensioners over 70 with a so-called £100 extra on their Winter fuel payments.  Mike Weatherley, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion commented:

 “The cat is out the bag.  These figures prove Labour give with one hand, and take with the other.  Council tax in Brighton and Hove has gone up by 94%, ten times the rate of inflation since 1997.  An increase in state pension, pensioners can only dream of.  Under Labour, council tax has become a stealth tax, but the people of Brighton and Hove will not be fooled.    They know they are worse off under Labour, with less money in their pockets. Soaring council tax is the fault of the Government, who have intentionally used it to raise the burden of taxation. They have also loaded councils with extra burdens and bureaucracy without funding councils properly. As the independent Audit Commission have said in their own report on the causes of higher council tax__ ‘National cost pressures taken together account for about £2.3 billion of the total increase in councils’ spending of £4.3 billion. In other words slightly more than half the total increase is due to national pay and price inflation, increased national insurance and general population growth.’

__ ‘The causes of increase spending by councils included… national policy priorities, such as the requirement to increase funding for schools by an amount determined by government or to meet national waste recycling targets.’

__ ‘Grant redistribution – which moved grant from London and the south to the midlands and the north – led to some councils putting up council tax more than others. We found a clear association between the size of grant increase a council received and their increase in council tax.”

 Mike concluded:

 “Conservatives believe in big people, small government at both local and national level.  Conservatives believe your money is better spent by you than politicians.”

Notes:

Failing council tax benefit and means-testing

When council tax was established, a system of council tax benefit was created to ensure that those on low incomes received support to help pay their council tax bills. Yet the Government’s increased use of means-tested benefits and complex application forms has resulted in reduced take-up of council tax benefit, resulting in those on lower incomes are paying higher council taxes.

·          Fewer than two in three eligible pensioners now claim the council tax benefit to which they are entitled, compared to three out of four in 1998. (source: DWP, Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-up, 2001-02, February 2004, and ibid, 1998-99. Rates over these years have fallen from 74.5 per cent to 64.5 per cent).

·          Pensions credit is also extraordinarily complicated and two million of those entitled do not claim.  It is that the poorest pensioners are those who are least likely to get the benefits they are entitled to. The Government have proclaimed that 2.9 million people were claiming Pensions Credit (DWP Press Release, 21 April 2004), yet this is 2 million less than the total 4.9 million eligible.

Conservative policy on pensions          

Conservatives are committed to reviving funded pensions by reducing company regulations and creating new incentives to save.  We will also lift a million pensioners off means-tested benefits in our first term by raising the basic state pension by earnings not prices.

By linking the pension to earnings the next Conservative Government would increase the single person’s pension by £7 a week, and for a couple by £11 a week, on top of price inflation over four years. This will free a million pensioners from means-testing in our first term of government. Our proposal is carefully costed. Nearly half of the funds come from the off-setting savings gained from taking pensioners off the expensive-to-administer means test. We will also use money saved from welfare reform – we will scrap the costly and failing New Deal unemployment programme.

Change in council tax vs. Pensions

The year-on-year changes in the basic state pension can be compared with the change in council tax, using the average Band D rate as the benchmark for a typical household. Single pensioners receive a lower state pension, but benefit from a 25 per cent council tax discount if living alone.

Couples’ State Pension & Two-Person Household Council Tax [English average]

Single Person’s State Pension & One-Person Household Council Tax [English average]

Local figures

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