Council Tax

[jrwagh333]

If this for some reason is against forum rules then please feel free to remove it and I do apologies.


I have started an e-petition about my Council Tax bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSOxMiJTYR0#t=1

'Repeal the Enforcement provisions of Committal to Prison for non-payment of Council Tax'

I wanted to ask you all at OCUK if you could sign too.

The Government's recent welfare reforms mean that most adult citizens in this country will now be required to pay Council Tax.
But what will happen if I continue to ignore my Council Tax bill or refuse to pay it?

The answer from the Government:–
'If you’re struggling to pay your Council Tax… If you can’t come to a payment arrangement (or if you make arrangements to pay but don’t), your council can ask the Magistrates’ Court for a ‘Liability Order’.

This is a demand for you to pay the full amount you owe, plus costs… If you ignore the court order… Your council can send bailiffs to your home to seize property to sell…

If your council has tried using bailiffs but your bill still isn’t paid, they can apply to the Magistrates’ Court for a warrant to send you to prison…

If the court doesn't think you have a valid reason for not paying, it can send you to prison for up to 3 months.'

https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-arrears
England and Wales are the only countries in Europe in which a person can be sent to prison for not paying a local tax.
There is no imprisonment for failure to pay Council Tax in Scotland.

This campaign means a lot to me. The more support we can get behind it, the better chance we have of succeeding and changing the Law.

You can read more at http://Stop.Jail4Tax.me.uk

Sign the petition here:
https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57160/signature/new

Thank you!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please let me make this clear. This isn't about people refusing to pay their Council Tax. It is about people not being able to afford to pay the Council Tax. And the fact that, it you CAN'T pay and have no means to pay, the Council can still apply for your committal to prison.

 

[jrwagh333]

It's a perfectly good system. People don't go to prison if they have a genuine reason for not being able to pay.

Yes they do.

 

[jrwagh333]

Under the current Law in England and Wales as it stands, in one single year the Courts sent 1,202 people to jail for non-payment. The average sentence was 32 days at a cost of imprisonment of over £100 per day with some Magistrates imprisoning people for three months.

It has been reported in the Independent newspaper - ‘Courts jail civil debtors unlawfully’
that:-

“the bench jailed for nine days a young mother who owed £22 – she was freed two days later on the orders of a High Court judge… A 74 year old in a residential home was arrested by police at the council home and taken before magistrates who sent him to jail… Justices sent… a mother of four, to jail for 28 days. Her 21-year-old son, physically and mentally disabled, is dependent on her care…”

“The High Court has said that Magistrates' powers to jail are to enforce payment, not to punish, and that they should only be used as a last resort. “Despite this stream of recent authorities, Magistrates are continuing to make the same errors and continue in increasing numbers to punish the vulnerable,”

“One of the main reasons is that Council Tax… defaulters have fewer rights than criminals. There is no Legal Aid - meaning the poor and often those with learning disabilities have to represent themselves at hearings they do not understand; there is no requirement for pre-sentence reports so Magistrates are often unaware of the full impact of their penalty; there are no "public interest" considerations which in criminal cases allow for decisions not to prosecute, for example, the elderly; and there is no appeal - apart from judicial review.”

“Ian Wise, a barrister…who has taken hundreds of such cases to the High Court, said:
“The time has come . . . to put an end to this appalling catalogue of injustice.”… “Every day in the local paper you can read of criminal cases where people convicted of taking and driving away, assault, credit card fraud and criminal damage are being placed on probation – yet people with little or no income who try but fail to pay their local tax are going to prison.”

Please sign and share the E-petition to Change the Law @

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57160/signature/new

to Stop being put in Jail for not being able to afford to pay Council Tax.

 

[jrwagh333]

Reply from the Chair and leading barrister of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers - http://www.haldane.org

‘The New Poll Tax’ – 12th December 2013 :–

“The abolition of council tax benefit is every bit as disgraceful as the hated bedroom tax – but has yet to hit the media headlines. LIZ DAVIES explains why it will be so damaging.

The government's assault on the poor includes abolishing council tax benefit. This is just as pernicious as the bedroom tax but has received less publicity. It came in on May 1…

In place of council tax benefit, the government introduced a "council tax-reduction scheme." The name suggests lower council tax bills. It is nothing of the sort. It is simply a subsidy from government to local authorities to replace council tax benefit… The government's intention is to blame local authorities for this cut.

By simply giving local authorities a pot of money equivalent to 80 per cent of the amount that they used to receive in council tax benefit, it can claim that if local authorities pass the 20 per cent shortfall onto each council taxpayer, that is their choice…

In many ways, this is the new poll tax. Its aim is that everyone, even the poorest, should contribute to council tax…

Garden Court Chambers, where I work, has launched Legal Action on Council Tax.
Our website contains detailed legal information as to how to appeal to a valuation tribunal and what happens when you are summonsed to the magistrate's court.

No legal aid is available and so applicants have to represent themselves. Our hope is that the dissemination of information will give applicants the tools to make the argument and do just that.

Perhaps the best hope is that, like the poll tax, the collecting authorities and the courts will become so overwhelmed that government has to give in.” http://goo.gl/5nuQ4e

Please sign and share the E-petition to Change the Law @

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57160/signature/new

to Stop being put in Jail for not being able to afford to pay Council Tax.

 

[jrwagh333]

Got over 700 now