Disabled residents hit with higher council tax

Disabled people in Newcastle are being chased for council tax, taken to court, and threatened with bailiffs. Their benefit changed, but their income barely did. The old one was mostly ignored when the council worked out their council tax support. Universal Credit isn't, so their bills shot up.

Other councils in the North East saw this coming and protected their residents. In Middlesbrough, not a single council tax bill went up because of the move. South Tyneside checked, and made sure no one was worse off. Newcastle's residents weren't so lucky, and some are now paying the price in demand letters and court summonses.

Councillors should have been warned about this clearly and explicitly. Had we been, I don't believe any of us would have let it happen.

I've been working on this alongside the advice workers who see the human cost first-hand, in Citizens Advice, in the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, in the council's own advice services, and in organisations across the city. They are the ones picking up the pieces, and they are the people I stand with. It was one of their advice workers who first brought this injustice to my door.

The council can put this right now. It has the power to correct the bills of everyone affected straight away, and to fix the problem at next year's review so it never happens again. Alistair, the council's Disability Champion, has pressed the leader of the council for a meeting and will keep pushing until this is sorted out for good.

If you want to read about this in more detail, read Alistair's blog post in full.