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The lie on your Council Tax Bill
I was looking at my Council Tax bill for this financial year. And something did not add up.
The column for "Annual Charge and Percentage Variation since last year" shows a bunch of figures which clearly indicate there should be a 2.5-2.6% increase. But it is 4.1%. Here is why.
The Government has instructed all Councils to dispense with standard accounting procedures for the "Adult Social Care" precept.
So-my (and everyone's) Adult Social Care Precept shows an increase that is false. Using my ASC, it says this has gone up by 2.5% this year. It has not. It has gone up by 25%. Using the exact calculation my Tax Bill pretends to have used.
The Government has decreed that the calculation for ASC increase should be the increase divided by BOTH the ASC AND the County Council portion of the Tax Bill. Regardless of the fact that the Council Tax Bill already has the appropriate calculations within the Bill.
Half my Council Tax increase has been deliberately hidden, by using Accounting figures that are, for want of a better description, blatant lies. You are told on your bill there is an increase in your ASC bill. But lied to as to how this is calculated, and (of course) how much it is.
Check your Council Tax Bill. You will see what I mean.
The column for "Annual Charge and Percentage Variation since last year" shows a bunch of figures which clearly indicate there should be a 2.5-2.6% increase. But it is 4.1%. Here is why.
The Government has instructed all Councils to dispense with standard accounting procedures for the "Adult Social Care" precept.
So-my (and everyone's) Adult Social Care Precept shows an increase that is false. Using my ASC, it says this has gone up by 2.5% this year. It has not. It has gone up by 25%. Using the exact calculation my Tax Bill pretends to have used.
The Government has decreed that the calculation for ASC increase should be the increase divided by BOTH the ASC AND the County Council portion of the Tax Bill. Regardless of the fact that the Council Tax Bill already has the appropriate calculations within the Bill.
Half my Council Tax increase has been deliberately hidden, by using Accounting figures that are, for want of a better description, blatant lies. You are told on your bill there is an increase in your ASC bill. But lied to as to how this is calculated, and (of course) how much it is.
Check your Council Tax Bill. You will see what I mean.
Comments
Surely not.
They are causing pretty much every County Council to lie too.
In my area (and most other areas) there has been a large rise in 1 part of Council Tax. And it is being hidden by a lie on Council Tax Forms.
28 MARCH 2017
You may have received your annual council tax bill through the door in the last week or two. If you have, you may also have noticed that it mentions the amount of council tax being paid towards the adult social care precept.
What is the adult social care precept?
In 2015 English councils were given the power to increase council tax to pay for social care services for adults. These are services which help people with physical or mental disabilities or mental health needs carry out their daily routines.
Councils are allowed to increase council tax by up to 3% in 2017/18 and 2018/19 to pay for social care, on top of any rise in council tax that would happen anyway. If they do this, they can’t increase it again in 2019/20.
The government also limits increases to what we might call core council tax to 2% as well. If they want to increase it by any more than these levels set by government, councils must hold a local referendum.
Using the precept, councils raised £382 million last year, although not all councils used it. Of the 152 councils responsible for social care in England there were eight that chose not to use the adult social care precept.
It’s expected that the precept could raise £1.7 billion a year for social care by 2019/20 if all councils chose to use it. Almost three quarters of councils have chosen to increase council tax by the full 3% related to adult social care, according to the Local Government Association. Not all councils will be able to raise the same amount though and we’ve written more about that here.
There are other ways that councils get money to pay for social care, including specific government grants, money from the NHS, and from their general pool of funding which they’re able to spend on any services they choose.
How does that affect your bill?
Councils have to show how this precept affects you in your council tax bill. We’ve seen a number of comments on Twitter from people questioning the way it’s been worked out, though.
What seems to be causing problems is the bit stating the percentage increase in the adult social care precept compared to the previous year—3% in Bury council’s case—pictured above.
Some people have taken this to mean that the chunk of the bill going towards adult social care has increased by 3% compared to last year. But, confusingly, it doesn’t mean that.
Broadly speaking, the core council tax part of your bill from last year is looked at, the council works out 3% of it (if it’s raising the maximum), and then adds that much on to your bill for this year. That amount will then be used specifically to pay for adult social care.
Even more confusingly, in this case Bury council seems to have looked at this year’s bill to work out the 3%, rather than last year’s. We’re seeking clarification.
So how does the bill work? Well, it should have a few lines breaking down the different amounts included in your bill. This will include the amount in your bill that is going towards adult social care this year; it may also show you how the amount has changed between last year and this year.
Using figures from a hypothetical council tax bill in Stafford we can see how this would work in practice. Staffordshire County Council is responsible for adult social care in the borough, along with a range of other services.
In 2016/17 a Band D property in Stafford would have paid £1,088.65 in council tax to Staffordshire County Council. £20.95 of that would have been for adult social care.
In 2017/18 the council tax increase linked to adult social care in Staffordshire County is 3% as they’ve chosen to increase it by the full amount. So that’s 3% of the £1,088.65 paid last year, or £32.66. In the case of our Stafford council tax bill, it will add together the amount generated from the increase the year before with the increase for this year. That’s £53.61 altogether.
So in this case the adult social care part of the bill has increased by 156%, but the bill might still say “3%” referring to how the increase in the bill was calculated.
There are also other amounts in the bill which go towards things like Stafford Borough Council, Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Fire Authority.
The problem, spotted by people on Twitter, is that the use of percentages in the bill isn’t consistent. Most parts of the bill only show the percentage increase in that specific line of the bill compared to last year. It seems, at least on some bills, the part going towards social care is explained using a different kind of percentage—the percentage mentioned in that line is 3% of last year’s core council tax.
Correction 28 March 2017
We’ve amended this piece to explain the difference in the types of percentage used on a council tax bill more clearly.
https://fullfact.org/health/council-tax-and-social-care-explaining-your-bill/
I'm sure they must have seen some legislation that I have missed-because my reading of the legislation says precisely the opposite.
In any event, these figures break just about every rule relating to both Maths and indeed English.
This year it is £232.76 which apparently represents a 4.5% over last year, last year's figure was £185.68. That is a 25.4% increase by my maths, not 4.5%.
So a massive increase in the cost of helping people with physical or mental health disabilities or mental health needs. Anyone got any idea what has resulted in this massive increase? COVID? Lockdowns? Financial impact? Previous underfunding?
I wasnt paying much attention but I think I heard an announcement that the government were allowing councils to increase, or remove the cap that restricted the amount that they were allowed to increase council tax bills by, in respect of social care.
Social care has been underfunded for many years.
The NI increase is also meant to fund social care eventually.
Legislation allows Local Authorities to award themselves up to 3% p.a, or 6% over 3 years via this ASC Precept.
That bit is legal. Quite how this can be expressed as neither an increase in the Local Authority part of the Bill, or the ASC part, baffles me.
This looks like a 3% increase, but on the £1200 bill.
https://www.colchester.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-information/how-your-council-tax-is-spent/?id=&page=adult--social--care--(asc)--contribution
Either I can't do Maths. Or Local Authorities can't.
It's simple. Be honest about increases. Don't lie.
Its all in here.
Sketchy Cliff notes.
Since the Care act 2014 adult social care has been moving gradually way from hospitals into the communities, freeing up NHS resources, funds are being diverted there.
2022-2024 is the big push, financially.
Interestingly I pay more for the 'Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner' at £275 than I do for Adult Social Care. This part has increased by 7.5% and 4.7% over the last two years.
I am not saying that Local Authorities should not be able to charge Council Taxpayers for the cost of Care. I don't like that system, simply because rich Counties/Authorities (like City of Westminster) will pay less, while poorer Counties will pay more. But that is not my main point-the money has to come from somewhere.
Why does my Council Tax Bill, while purporting to show the reason for and amount of increases, lie?.
It tells the truth about the total rise. And fails to mention the reason for half of that rise, and lies about the amounts of increase on County Council and/or ASC rises.
PS-the "big push" will not end in 2024. The NHS will never stop increasing spend, and the population will continue to both age and increasingly utilise tax avoidance measures.