Local council tax support hits low-income families

2.4 million low-income families will pay on average £138 a year more in council tax from 1 April 2013, says a new analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This is a result of the coalition's replacement of council tax benefit (CTB) in England with localised systems of council tax support (CTS), along with a 10 per cent cut in funding.

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In the year beginning April 2013, just 18 per cent of councils will retain the 2012-13 levels of support under new local schemes. 71 per cent will require all working-age adults to pay at least some council tax, regardless of income. 11 per cent will make some changes but these will not affect all CTB recipients.
Some 2.4 million low-income families will pay on average £138 more in council tax in 2013-14. This will be subject to wide variations: one million families will pay an extra £100 a year or less: but 150,000 will pay an extra £300 a year or more.
78 per cent of those affected by the changes currently pay no council tax. Councils will have to start collecting, on average, £140 each year from these households (in monthly collections of just under £12). It is 'unclear' how economical it will be for councils to pursue large numbers of low-income families for these sums of money.
Two million working-age CTB claimants are already in poverty, and a further half a million are just above the poverty line. Yet an increase in council tax will leave them with even less disposable income.
The study's authors comment that it will be a 'curious system' under which a jobseeker on benefit income of £71.70 a week is considered to have enough money to pay some council tax in some parts of the country, but too poor to pay in others.