A quarter of a million of England’s poorest families are this month facing council tax rises thanks to spiralling local authority support, research suggests.
A study by the New Policy Institute (NPI) suggests the number of councils requiring all working age residents to pay some council tax this year regardless of their wealth will rise to 250 from 229 in 2013/14.
It is thought the size of this payment will also grow, with 129 councils requiring residents to pay at least a fifth of their household liabilities compared to just 95 in April 2013.
Following the replacement of the national system of council tax benefit (CTB) with locally devised council tax support (CTS) two years ago – as funding was devolved and cut by 10% - 2.3m low-income households now paying on average £167 more every year than they would have done previously.
Hannah Aldridge, senior researcher at New Policy Institute, said government caps on council tax rises at 2% had failed to protect the most deprived families from paying higher sums.
While 163 councils have maintained a freeze on council tax rises over the past three years, 136 of these have cut locally devised CTS leaving 870,000 low income families annually paying on average £160 more in council tax.
‘For a third year in a row the discounts available to low income families on their council tax have been eroded. Now 2.3m of the poorest families pay on average £167 per year more in council tax than they would have at the beginning of this parliament,’ Aldridge said.
‘By abolishing council tax benefit but capping council tax rises, the Government has left the poorest families exposed to the sharpest rises in council tax.’
