East Herts see claims for help with rents shoot up

In a fairly decent area of the country where poverty and crime is low relatively compared to other regions east Hertfordshire has seen claims for people struggling to pay rent increase. This is no doubt due to the governments vicious benefit cuts and our local councils unwillingness to fight the cuts. We have a Tory council around here so I wouldn’t expect them to be on the side of the poor but this article below quotes a local Tory councillor who clearly has no idea of the scale of the hardness on ordinary people out there struggling already. SWINGEING benefit cuts have seen almost six times the amount of people asking for help paying their rent than a year ago. Across the board, East Herts Council are being bombarded with calls and enquires from “confused and frustrated” people struggling to make ends meet as Government welfare changes come into force. In April and May this year 146 people in East Herts made requests for discretionary housing payments, up from 25 in the same period last year. A section of the report for the East Herts and Stevenage Council’s joint revenue and benefits committee, which meets tonight (July 1), said: “Customers have been generally confused and frustrated by the welfare reforms and are keen to express this dissatisfaction to officers. “The volume of contacts with customers is very high and often repeated.” The sweeping changes have lead to an increase of 15 per cent in the level of work done by East Herts Council and Stevenage Borough Council’s joint benefits service compared to last year. There has also been 503 more council tax payment reminders sent from May 2012 compared to May 2013, up 17.4 per cent to 3,388 from 2,885. The average value of the reminder is £87.55. Since April, 2,569 people in East Herts who used to get a 100 per cent discount in their council tax are now paying 8.5 per cent. This is after Government reduced spending on council tax support by 10 per cent. East Herts council passed this reduction on; something executive member for finance Cllr Mike Tindale (Con, Little Hadham) called “one of the council’s most difficult decisions” back in February when the budget was set. Speaking on Monday before the meeting (July 1), he said: “It was a very difficult decision about people who were already feeling the squeeze and were asked to pay more. “We were mindful of that and we wanted to spread the burden as wide as possible. “In retrospect, we feel what we did was right but there’s no easy way of making cuts.” Some of these people, which mainly consist of disabled people, the unemployed and those on low income, are paying council tax for the first time. “These customers are resource intensive and are demonstrating patterns of repeat callers,” the report continued. “There appears little understanding of council tax liability and payment requirements.” The report also mentions the benefits cap will hit 42 families in East Herts when it is rolled at intervals nationwide from Monday July 15. With article sourced from http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Hertfordshire/Welfare-cuts-see-rent-help-requests-to-East-Herts-Council-up-584-per-cent-20130701131937.htm So more crocodile tears “difficult decisions” etc etc how about these Tory councillors find out what it is like to live on a limited income always worrying how they will next pay the bills and feed themselves. These Tory councillors don’t know poverty and will never know it from their ivy towers. Whilst East herts on the whole is not fairing too bad from the cuts there are still pockets of poverty hidden away from public more often than not but it is still there. It’s those people who are struggling by I stood for when I stood for TUSC this year in the county council elections. Gaining 59 votes in a hugely true blue Tory area with no previous experience of standing was a decent effort. Shows even in leafy East herts three are people looking for an alternative to cuts and misery even if just a few at this stage. We all know cuts will carry on and we must hold firm our time will come as socialists even in areas we’ve never seen much action in in the past. We live in unprecedented times where anything is possible it would seem.

Black April

So we enter April with a bang or a thud for many people living in Britain many new laws and benefit changes come in today and for many this will signal a continuation of harsh austerity policies from the con-dem government. These new policies coming into force from today onwards include cuts to housing benefit for some social housing tenants with a spare room and changes to council tax. The biggest shake-up of the welfare system for decades will also see low income households in many parts of England begin paying council tax for the first time. From today, 660,000 social housing tenants deemed to have a spare room will begin to lose an average of £14 a week in housing benefit. What is happening when? • 1 April: Spare room subsidy removed for working-age social housing tenants • 1 April: Council tax benefit changed to council tax support and run locally • 8 April: Working-age benefits and tax credits uprated by 1% - a below-inflation cap • 8 April: Disability living allowance replaced by personal independence payment • 15 April: Introduction of cap on total amount of benefit for working-age people • 29 April: Universal credit rolled out in test areas It has been estimated that two million low income households will pay more, as a result of changes to council tax benefit. The benefit is being replaced by council tax support and responsibility for it is being moved from central government to councils, but with 10% less funding. Also from this month, most working age benefits will increase by just one per cent - less than the likely rise in the cost of living. And later this month, an overall limit of £500 a week on claims is beginning in four London boroughs, and will come into force across England, Scotland and Wales over the coming months. But government plans to test a new universal credit - which combines several benefits into one payment - have been delayed. Three out of four pilot areas in the north west of England will not now start using the system until July. Even the pro big business BBC has voiced concerns at how quickly these cuts are being made they say quite clearly these policies will define this government too right they will. They will go down as the government who looked to savage ordinary peoples living standards. All of these policies and cuts must be fought in the most militant, determined and firm way in whatever way we can. There are so many reasons now for the TUC to get up off its knees and name a day for a 24 hour general strike it is overwhelming now the attacks on the poor. Its time we all stood up and made a stand.

Council tax benefit cuts, attacking the most vunrable again, all cuts must be fought

Another vicious attack on the most vulnerable has been launched by the Con-Dem government by slashing the amount of council tax benefit people receive. In fact, they want to completely abolish the benefit at a national level in April 2013. Instead, local authorities will be given the responsibility of dishing out the money but with 10% less in the pot. Bob Neill, Tory Local Government minister, speaking on Radio 4 defended it as "an incentive for councils to get people back to work". But where are the jobs many ask? The only proviso that has been set by the government is that councils should pay the full amount to pensioners and 'protect the vulnerable'. As for who is defined as 'vulnerable', that's for the council to decide. There are currently almost six million people who receive council tax benefit. Of these, 62% are under 65 and many have 100% of their council tax paid for them. These changes will mean that people, already living in poverty in many cases, will be asked to cough up something towards it. Every council in England is being asked to consult on the cuts they are making (Scotland has decided to make the 10% cuts elsewhere and Wales is passing the 10% cuts on to benefit recipients). But residents are only being given the choice of deciding who should be forced to pay more. If completing the questionnaire for Harrow Council, you can choose who should get more benefit: those who 'can't work' or those 'who can work but are unemployed'. There is no option for the council to fight this cut from the government. Manchester City Council is looking at cutting the benefit by 15-20% for everybody while others are looking at reducing the savings you can have while still being entitled to the benefit - Waltham Forest is asking if people with savings over £6,000 should have to pay more council tax. Nottingham City Council recently held consultation meetings, two of which took place in the most deprived areas in the city: St Ann's and Bulwell. Each of these meetings had over 30 people at them, mainly unemployed and disabled people who are already suffering from the cruel attacks on benefits and the rise in the cost of living. We were separated into groups and asked who we think should pay for this cut. One woman remarked, "We shouldn't pay anything, what about the bankers and the rich who have caused this mess?" Other comments were unfortunately divisive and were encouraged by the council officers completing the consultation. Blame was quickly diverted from the government of millionaires to single parents, immigrants and people who are long-term unemployed. We must be clear these cuts are no fault of single parents, immigrants or any section of the working class. Councillors instead of deflecting blame onto those already feeling the bite of these vicious cuts are being made to squabble over who should pay up more for mistakes not of their making. Mistakes of the bankers who recklessly gambled away our economy in 2008. The socialist party feels there is great potential to link up disputes locally by uniting all who wish to fight these cynical cuts and there are similarities to the vicious poll tax which Margret Thatcher fell on her sword trying to force though in which the socialist party’s predecessor Militant successfully lead a 18 million strong mass non payment campaign which made the tax unworkable. The Socialist party believes local councils should refuse to pass this cut on and instead mount a fight back and demand the reversal of this cut and the full funding to meet the needs of its most venerable in its community. Already in the press, parallels are being drawn with Thatcher's Poll Tax. There is certainly a huge amount of anger that could be channeled into an anti-Poll Tax style campaign: building in local areas and linking up nationally into a mass campaign, defending people who are being threatened with being taking to court or imprisoned. If there is a discussion in every town and city about how to respond to this cut and the farce of consultations being held by the councils, it could quickly snowball into a campaign. There could be pressure exerted onto the Labour and Green councils to resist this attack and force the government to save council tax benefit! If our councilors refuse to fight, local people should stand in next year's council elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and fight the government ourselves. Which I intend to do if I get the chance. These cuts are not going away wishing them away or blaming Tories will not do we need a concerted fight back today not tomorrow or after 20th October, People are struggling today. With extracts taken from Becci Heagney’s article on http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/14982/06-08-2012/council-tax-benefit-cuts