{"id":10212,"date":"2011-12-17T05:58:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T22:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/the-council-tax-shock-of-living-alone\/"},"modified":"2016-04-08T10:52:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T03:52:36","slug":"the-council-tax-shock-of-living-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/the-council-tax-shock-of-living-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"The council tax shock of living alone"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nLocal authorities are using private companies to track down people wrongly claiming single-person discount, but the innocent are also being caughtWhen Sarah Dodds received a letter from Bristol city council demanding \u00a33,000 in unpaid council tax, she assumed there had been a mistake. However, things got worse when she called to find out what was going on. The council, she was told, was accusing her of fraudulently claiming the 25% council tax discount given to those living alone. It wanted its money, backdated to 2002, and there was apparently no appeal.Her “crime” was allowing her estranged son to have his bank statements and other letters sent to her home. By doing so, the semi-retired civil servant has become caught up in a campaign adopted by councils across the country to reduce single-person discount fraud, which is estimated to be costing around \u00a3100m a year. Continue reading…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…The council tax shock of living alone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local authorities are using private companies to track down people wrongly claiming single-person discount, but...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-2EI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87877,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/council-tax-rebates-for-mental-disability-still-going-unclaimed\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":0},"title":"Council tax rebates for mental disability still going unclaimed","date":"May 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Awareness campaign helps severely mentally impaired receive little-known discountFamilies are claiming as much as \u00a37,000 in council tax refunds thanks to an awareness campaign about a little-known discount for the severely mentally impaired (SMI).Someone who has been medically certified as having a permanent condition that affects their intelligence and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56262,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/reading-says-no-to-council-tax-discount-on-a-house-we-cant-live-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":1},"title":"Reading says \u2018no\u2019 to council tax discount on a house we can\u2019t live in","date":"May 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Our insurer has deemed it uninhabitable, but the local authority says it stopped offering discounts this yearI live in Reading and have recently bought a property that has started to subside. The insurers have deemed it uninhabitable, so I will have to live elsewhere with my family and two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44968,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/move-over-granny-the-graddy-annexe-is-on-the-rise\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":2},"title":"Move over granny: the \u2018graddy annexe\u2019 is on the rise","date":"February 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r With graduates unable to afford their own home, more parents are building extensions to house their boomerang offspringGranny flats are not what they used to be \u2013 today they are increasingly likely to be filled by a millennial desperate way for their own space. With nearly half the graduates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":122583,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/we-feel-penalised-by-200-council-tax-increase-on-our-derelict-cottage\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":3},"title":"We feel penalised by 200% council tax increase on our derelict cottage","date":"October 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Our property has been empty for more than five years, now we are facing a bill of \u00a3725 a monthWe have bought a derelict cottage that needs renovation to make it habitable. As it has been empty for more than five years, we are being charged an extra 200%\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81748,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/council-tax-should-be-fair-and-progressive-ours-is-neither\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":4},"title":"Council tax should be fair and progressive. Ours is neither","date":"March 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r It is outrageous that a person in a \u00a317m Westminster mansion pays less than a pensioner in a Nottingham bungalowThere is a Grade II-listed seven-bedroom home of \u201cambassadorial proportions\u201d for sale in Westminster, just along from the old Conservative party headquarters, if you\u2019ve got the odd \u00a317m to spare.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83781,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/taking-action-for-those-jailed-over-unpaid-council-tax-letters\/","url_meta":{"origin":10212,"position":5},"title":"Taking action for those jailed over unpaid council tax | Letters","date":"March 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Angela Rafferty QC and 57 others note that significant numbers of people are being unlawfully imprisoned for non-payment of council tax. They think this is likely to be one of the largest mass miscarriages of justice in British historyThe current council tax system is not only \u201chighly regressive\u201d because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}