Thursday 13 December 2012

Lobby and rally by local Nottingham City Residents against proposed new Council Tax Benefit Scheme as Councillors meet on December 18.

Local residents are lobbying councillors outside council offices at Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, next Tuesday, 18 December at 12.30pm as the council meet to discuss a proposed new Council Tax Benefit scheme following a city council consultation.  Residents will also rally later in Nottingham Market Square at 5.30pm
 
The lobby has been organised by Notts Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign whose contribution to the consultation described the proposals as “unworkable” and has been included in the Council’s consultation report.  Some issues highlighted by the group may be addressed in the final scheme, but the group say the scheme has to go.
 
“The City needs to keep the current Council Tax Benefit scheme, which is a fully funded scheme based on need, and kick out the new scheme which will lead to cuts in benefit for the poorest in the city.”


Chris Jackson (Notts Defend Council Tax Benefit)

Monday 3 December 2012

Local meetings in Sneinton and St Anns


Tuesday 4 Dec 7pm   
Sneinton Hermitage, 
Sneinton Boulevard, 
Sneinton 

To get to the Sneinton meeting by public transport, you can catch the No. 43 bus which departs outside of Boots store on Parliament Street.

Tuesday 11 Dec 7pm 
Chase Neighbourhood Centre, 
Robin Hood Chase, 
St Anns 

To get to the St Anns meeting by public transport, you can catch the No. 40 or 41 which departs outside of the Post office on Queen Street and also outside of Boots store on Parliament Street. 

Can you help with leafleting for the local meetings in Sneinton and St Anns



Monday 3 December, 6pm 
Meet outside Pak Foods, Sneinton Dale (43 Bus)


Wednesday 5 December, 10am 
Job Centre, Station Street

Thursday 6 December, 9.30am 
Job Centre, Station Street

Thursday 6 December, 6pm
Outside, St Anns Valley Centre, Robin Hood Chase (Bus 40/41)

Saturday 8 December, 6pm 
Outside, St Anns Valley Centre, Robin Hood Chase (Bus 40/41)

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Campaign in Nottingham City Centre

Campaign in Nottingham City Centre
Thank you to all who took part in the campaign and also those who signed our petition.

Sunday 21 October 2012

A Future that Works

The Video Stream is the "A Future that Works" march that took place on Saturday, 20th October 2012 is supplied via livestream and was originally streamed live to viewers at the time of the march.


Watch live streaming video from occupylsx at livestream.com

Thursday 18 October 2012

Local Authorities expect trouble



Local authorities expect half of poor residents to refuse to pay council tax

Councils are budgeting for large losses after coalition's benefit changes mean 2 million low-income workers must pay tax

Sunday 14 October 2012

Suggested Responses


Nottingham City Council’s
Questionnaire on proposed Council Tax Support Scheme
(Our Suggested responses)




Meeting

We have a meeting on the : 
16th October 2012 @ 7.30pm in Room 1 at the International Community Centre (YMCA) @ 61b Mansfield road, Nottingham.


please arrive early. There is limited parking in the ICC car park. Parking is available on the street  which is payable until 8pm  or in the Victoria Centre Car Park which is opposite the ICC

We have been busy with raising awareness of the campaign and the changes that people will be facing. A number of campaign stalls in St Anns have been run as well as at the Forest Recreation Ground. Our last campaign was at the Nottingham Goose Fair.

In addition to the campaign stalls members were on a recent coach trip that went to lobby Conservative Tory party conference. If you want to attend the meeting on 16th October with a friend you are welcome to bring them and your support is appreciated.

Please note that Nottingham City Council’s consultation ends on 30th October.

It would be good if you can attend one of their meetings to have your say about the changes that they are proposing. Our members have been attending these meetings to put the campaigns policy of “No Cuts” to the council. The council are always asking what we are doing as they  are clearly concerned by any campaign.

Please see the suggested responses post to make to the Nottingham City Council for to the consultation questionnaire found on the Nottingham City Council website.



Map of the meeting for Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign @ ICC on 16th October 2012.



View Larger Map


Council Meetings are below :

15 October: Please arrive by 11.00 am for a one hour session
St Ann's Valley Centre
St Ann's
Nottingham
NG3 3GG


16 October: Please arrive by 11.00am for a one hour session
Broxtowe Education Skills Training (BEST) Centre
Denton Green
Broxtowe Estate
Nottingham
NG8 6GD


18 October: Please arrive by 10.00am for a one hour session
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham
NG2 3NG


Please note that those are meetings organized by the council and not the Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign Group whose meeting will be on 16th October 2012 as stated at the top of this email.


Donation


Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union donated £10 to the Defend Council Tax benefits Campaign when he spoke at  a Labour Party meeting in Beeston recently.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Defend Council Tax Benefits

Welcome to : 
Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign

Here you will find links to other social networking tools.

Links to:

     Facebook (Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/333226320103342/

     Facebook (Page) : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Defend-Council-Tax-Benefits/448843248489160

     Twitter : https://twitter.com/defendbenefits
     tweet us @defendbenefits

 You can subscribe to this blog if you prefer not to join facebook or twitter.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Nottingham City Council's Savage Cuts


Nottingham City Council is proposing a savage attack on Council Tax Benefits
·         Every working age person and their partner would have to pay at least 20% of their Council Tax bill - with some similarity to the poll tax, an unwaged person on their own would be paying 20% of the bill
·         Council Tax Benefit would be based on a maximum of a band B property. Therefore,  if one member of a couple worked and one did not and the working person lost their job – they would pay:
·         If in a band B property, £251 per year - £5 a week
·         If in a band D property £606.92 a year – £11.67 per week – a massive 37% of their council tax

It gets worse
·         If people are able to save up for retirement or lose their job and receive some  redundancy money, if a person and/or their partner has savings above £6,000, they will not be entitled to any council Tax Benefit
·         And to add insult to injury- if a claim is not in on time and there can be many reasons for that – no backdating will be allowed!
·         The council is also considering  stopping CTB if the amount due  to a recipient is less than £2/week or £4/week
·         These proposals mean that many people will not be able to pay their council tax
·         Rather than pass on Con-Dem cuts, Nottingham and all other councils should refuse to pass government cuts on and should be building a massive campaign to fight for properly funded councils. Nottingham City Council say they lost a massive £60million in real terms in 2011/12.  Councils like Nottingham should stop using highly paid external consultants which costs £millions

If the councils do not want to fight for fully funded schemes, we need to build a massive community campaign involving the trade unions, many of whose members are facing these attacks.

Councils Should Fight Cuts



If councils do not fight– if the government gets its way –more cuts will follow

This year, some councils, like BROXTOWE, are trying to avoid cutting benefit entitlements, by increasing charges on various categories of empty properties. 

Whilst no-one wants to see properties left uninhabited, there can be many reasons for empty properties – it is not just big private landlords sitting on their properties – it can be homes that are unfit for habitation; or properties that people cannot sell due to the economic crisis.

Limited funds – Under the Government’s proposals, any increased demand for CTB e.g. due to job losses or reduced income such as from short time working,  has to come from the pot of money already  allocated by the government. Greater need means less is available for each recipient and year on year, councils will be re-assessing their income and expected needs and looking how to make the savings.

If the Con-Dem proposals are not stopped, there will be further cuts in the money allocated by the government each year. Councils will find that if they do not fight for a properly funded scheme they cannot raise sufficient funds without making cuts in benefit entitlements.

Increasing charges is not an alternative to fighting – it reflects a lack of will of councils to fight for more funding and prepares the way for cuts. Where available, councils should use reserves to cover any shortfall and to buy time to build a real campaign for proper council funding.
Councils must fight now! We need to build a mass campaign to pressurise them to refuse to pass the cuts on either by increased charges and/or cuts in benefit entitlement.

Who gets Council Tax Benefit


Who receives Council Tax Benefit (CTB) 
(official figures from April 2012)

·        Over 5.9million people receive CTB; almost 900,000 more than receive Housing benefit. It includes many low paid workers.

·    In Nottingham, 42,510 households were receiving CTB, with 8,820 in Broxtowe Borough, 9,290 in Gedling and 5,860 in Rushcliffe.

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Con-Dem attack on Council Tax Benefits

This vicious government is determined to make ordinary people pay for the crisis whilst their banker friends get bailed out and still get their bonuses.

Under the misnamed ‘Welfare Reform Act, the government  is proposing to abolish the national Council Tax Benefit (CTB) scheme which is centrally funded and make all councils in England bring in their own scheme from April 2013, with less funding. They aim to save around £410million in England approximately 10% of current costs. In Nottingham and Nottinghamshire the cut is around £13.29 million. For the City Council the shortfall is closer to 15% of what the City council pays out in Council Tax Benefit.

The government want councils to cut benefits as part of the attack on the welfare state to make us pay for the bankers’ and the system’s crisis and to make benefits so poor that people will work for as little as employers want to pay. Hardly surprising, some in the government want to get rid of the minimum wage. Currently, the government has exempted pensioners (approximately 1/3 of CTB recipients) from this latest attack – but for how long? 

OPPOSE CUTS IN 
COUNCIL TAX BENEFITS 
OPPOSE INCREASED CHARGES




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