CANTERBURY & WHITSTABLE
LIB DEMS DEMAND £200 COUNCIL TAX REFUND
FOR ALL PENSIONERS
by Alex
Perkins,
Canterbury Liberal Democrat Leader
Canterbury & Whitstable
Lib Dems are
launching a campaign to force the Government
to pay the one-off £200
Council Tax refund to all pensioners and to stop
discriminating against women aged 60-64.
LibDem Cllr Alex Perkins said:
“The Government are insulting the 3,557
women in this district aged 60 to 64. They are
denying
them the £200 Council Tax refund on the grounds
that they claim they have retired inappropriately
early. What an insult!”
LibDem Cllr Charlotte MacCaul said:
“This is ludicrous. If the Government
has overwhelming evidence that women between 60
and 64
do not require the same level of help as other pensioners
they should produce it. Otherwise, this appears to
be nothing but discriminatory.”
Local Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson
Jenny Barnard-Langston said:
“We are launching a petition which we
hope to deliver to the Prime Minister later this
year – we
are inviting everyone to sign it. Our local Liberal
Democrat Councillors are taking a motion to the council – I
hope everyone will join us in fighting for local
pensioners.”
Notes to Editors:
The £200 Council Tax refund, announced by
Gordon Brown, the Chancellor in the run up to the
General Election in May, is being restricted to those
aged 65 and over. This means that women aged 60-64,
despite having past the state pension age will be
unable to receive the help with their Council Tax
bills.
Government Ministers have justified this exclusion
on the grounds that 65 “is the age that the
Government considers to be the appropriate age for
retirement.” And yet the state pension age
for women is currently 60.
The Chancellor announced the payment in his Budget
speech on 16th March 2005:
“we will pay to every pensioner household
- 65 and over - paying council tax, a refund not
of £50 but a council tax refund of £200.”
To qualify for the £200, you must turn 65
before 25 September 2005. It will be paid along with
this year’s Winter
Fuel Payment (for households
aged 60 and over) before Christmas.
Those in receipt of the Guarantee Credit (part of
the Pension Credit) will also be excluded from the £200
because they will be eligible for council tax benefit.
If the age bar were lowered to 60, 3,555 local men
would also benefit.
During the passage of the Age
Related Payments Bill which made provision for the payment, the Pensions
Minister was asked what justification there was for
leaving this group of pensioners out, but he failed
to answer.
The statement that women aged 60-64 will be excluded
from receiving the money because 65 “is the
age that the Government considers to be the appropriate
age for retirement” comes from a letter from
DWP Minister, Baroness Hollis to David Laws MP (a
copy of the letter can be faxed on request).
Motion to Full Council
Proposer Cllr Alex Perkins
Seconder Cllr Charlotte MacCaul
This Council notes that our pension system is the
most complex in the world and our council tax system
is unfair.
This Council believes the one-off pre-Election gimmick
of a £200 Council Tax refund for pensioner
households aged 65 and over discriminates unfairly
against the 3,557 women pensioners aged 60-64 in
this district.
This Council deplores the Government’s cynical
attempt at justifying the exclusion of some women
pensioners on the grounds that it believes 65
to be the ‘appropriate age for retirement’ when
the state pension age for women is currently 60.
This Council calls on the Government to, as a matter
of urgency:
1) Extend the refund to all pensioners in the Canterbury
District
2) Stop messing with the pension system and introduce
reforms that will reduce poverty and improve incentives
to save
3) Scrap the council tax and replace it with an alternative
tax based on the ability to pay.
