City Council officers will give a presentation on ways to pay Council Tax and Housing Rents. The presentation will give particular advice to those people who will be affected by the changes to the Welfare Rights Scheme that come in to effect on 1 April 2013. This will include those who have to pay Council Tax for the first time and those who will now receive housing benefits payments directly to themselves. A brief overview of the changes to the Welfare Rights Scheme also will be given.
Minutes:
Mike Watson, Income Collection Manager with the City Council’s Housing Services, explained that the Welfare Reform Act would come in to force on 1 April 2013. This was a government initiative over which the Council had no control and would make changes to the way benefits were calculated and paid.
Mike Watson explained that there were various ways in which to pay rent and Council Tax to the Council:-
· Direct Debit.
Rent could be paid on the 1st and 15th of each month.
Council Tax could be paid on the 1st, 10th, 20th and 28th of each month.
Direct debits could be cancelled at any time.
· On-line.
Payments could be made on-line with cards such as Switch, Solo, or Delta. The rent account or Council Tax account numbers were needed to make the payment.
Computers could be accessed at libraries and housing offices.
· PayPoint.
Payments could be made in cash at any outlet with a PayPoint sign. These payments could be made whenever wanted at no extra cost to the payee.
· Over the telephone by debit or credit card.
· At any branch of the Post Office in the country.
· By post.
Payments by post could only be made by cheque.
· By Standing Order.
The form for this could be obtained from the Council or the Council’s website. Five days needed to be allowed before the due date of the payment to set up the Standing Order.
People also could open a Credit Union Budget Account (CUBA). These were transactional accounts that credit unions across the East Midlands had come together to create. Benefits would be paid directly in to an account and then rent and Council Tax payments were taken out first. Anyone operating a CUBA had access to all of the services offered by credit unions, such as budgeting advice and low interest loans.
The Council would pay the £10 joining fee for a CUBA and the 75p transaction charge for rent payments.
If a rent payment was missed, a reminder letter would be sent. If applicable, the Council would enter in to an affordable agreement with anyone owing rent and could provide a free “benefits health check”. However, if people continued not to pay, the Council would take them to court. As a last resort, a bailiff warrant would be obtained to enforce eviction. Anyone evicted for non-payment of rent would be considered to be intentionally homeless.
Council Tax usually was paid over ten months, but a request could be made to spread the payments over twelve months. If a payment of Council Tax was missed, a reminder letter would be sent, with a further letter being sent if a second payment was missed. After the third missed payment, the Council would take action to recover the money owed, including action through the courts.
The date that the Council received a payment was important. It recommended that payments be made five days before the due date, to avoid any problems arising.
If people could not afford to pay their Council Tax or housing rent, the Council recommended that they consider moving to smaller accommodation. In some cases, it could be cheaper to move in to private accommodation. However, it was recognised that this could be difficult to do.
Some help was available in the form of discretionary payments for both housing rent and Council Tax. These payments could be made in the short-term while alternative accommodation was being sought. However, there were limited funds available for this.
Although the Council did not recommend it, the government was promoting the idea of taking in a lodger to help cover costs, as some of the income from a lodger could be kept before deductions were made from benefits. People considering doing this needed to exercise caution and the Council was producing information and an advice leaflet on this. As an alternative, non-dependents in the household could be asked to increase their contribution to household costs.
In reply to a question from a resident, Mike Watson undertook to find out how much Council Tax owed to the City Council was unpaid.
In reply to further questions, Mike Watson explained that:-
o These reforms only applied to working age adults;
o The regulations contained provision for use of a separate bedroom by the following people:-
- a severely disabled child, who would disturb the sleep of anyone they shared a room with;
- foster parents who had had a child placed with them within the last 12 months;
- an adult serving in the armed forces;
However, households falling in to these categories still could be affected by the “bedroom tax”. For example, if a family had one foster child but three bedrooms, they would be subject to the bedroom tax;
o No allowance was made under the regulations for a spare bedroom for use by a child staying overnight with a parent not living with that child. Changes had been made to the Council’s housing allocations policy to account for this. Under this, people could still apply for a two-bedroom property, but would have to take account of the implications of doing so; and
o Although the Council was generally not building new properties now, some housing associations were. Two bedroom properties were the most sought after, due to the new regulations.