What’s the worst bill you currently hate to pay?

Out of just those 4, yes Council Tax.

I looked into once, living off grid.
Unless we sold the property, Council tax still had to be paid.
Not many ways that are elible for not paying it.

Yes shocking all of them! Council Tax £3,400 per annum, water bill in the region of £800 and allegedly to rise, Gas/Electricity approximately £2,400 per annum.

I don't blame anyone living off grid, I'm sure that will become more common for young people, good luck to them.

My water bill is a £1 a day. I don’t think that’s expensive for running water and waste removal.

My energy bill, averaged over the year is less than £3 a day. Much if that in the warmer months is standing charges. I’m looking forward to the proposed changes in that which Martin Lewis has campaigned for.

The TV Licence is less than 50p a day. I’d happily pay that for Radio 3 and 4 alone.

Council tax is high, band F 25 % single occupancy discount, but has gone up by only 20p a day. The city council keeps only 10% of what residents pay. The rest goes to the county council, police and fire services and parish councils.

By far the biggest costs for county councils is adult social care, here costing around £2.5 million a DAY, and the combined cost of schools. children’s services, early years & child care costs and home to school transport which also totals around £2.5 million a DAY. Two sets of costs we should never be skimping on.

Exactly. Whilst Council Tax is high, by the time they have met their statutory obligations ie social care and children’s services, there is not a lot left over to cover everything else.
I can’t say I hate paying any particular bill, as they are all necessary.

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Water bill-it’s good value-except for paying the bosses.
I knew charges would go up the more people they persuaded onto a water meter, losing them vast amounts of money e.g. mine went from £72pm to just over £10pm.
Council tax- difficult to find out where it goes. We get a list of things, but don’t see any improvements.
Gas/electric? I use it so I pay, but when standing charge is bigger than the usage, I grit my teeth.
TV Licence? Only when I read that they’re
paying out millions to certain people e.g. Gary Linneker, though there’s less I like to watch.

It's insurance bills which have gone up the most.
House insurance up by over 40% last year and another 37% this year so we have shopped around but even so there is still a hefty increase.
Car insurances has gone up and is almost double what it was two years ago so we have gone on comparison sites.

We have not made claims on any of these insurances so why the huge increases?

In contrast, although Council tax and water rates have gone up, the increases bear no comparison to other bills.

Water bill-it’s good value-except for paying the bosses.

Water companies are failing us. The bosses, even if the company is not privatised, are creaming off huge sums for themselves but failing to provide the basics and are polluting our waterways, wasting water through leaks, through failure to improve infrastructure.

Council tax. Ours is one of the highest in England, and we are next to a borough with one of the lowest.

It’s several years ago now, but when I worked for the council in a library, I would see evidence of what they were wasting on what I’d call ‘frills’ - while complaining that they needed to make cuts to pay for essential services.

E.g. piles of glossy, full colour postcards inviting people to put themselves on the Arts mailing list.

Full colour leaflets advertising ‘Gentle bike rides for women’.

At around Christmas, full colour leaflets with recipes for non-alcoholic cocktails, in case you felt like drinking and driving.

A glossy magazine, distributed to every household, largely full of council PR (and plenty of SPAG mistakes!) which cost the same annually as running that small library - which of course they wanted to close. We regularly had to bin piles of those magazines.

However I’m pleased to say that the magazine eventually died the death.

BBC licence I don't even watch bbc

I've been trying to do a search for what my council tax pays for and if true it's worth it.
It pays for schools, Police, libraries, leisure services, roads, street cleaning and lighting, waste collections and more.

I'm on band G which is almost the highest but we managed to reduce from H which includes castles and Royal palaces. I can assure you my house is large but not that big or grand.

Council Tax

Grammaretto

I've been trying to do a search for what my council tax pays for and if true it's worth it.
It pays for schools, Police, libraries, leisure services, roads, street cleaning and lighting, waste collections and more.

I'm on band G which is almost the highest but we managed to reduce from H which includes castles and Royal palaces. I can assure you my house is large but not that big or grand.

Yes, a search list isnt hard to find.

I just now typed in the name of my city and what is council tax spent on and two clicks away was a full breakdown including pie charts. You can also sign up for a regular email update.

As Silverbooks said above, the bulk is on all aspects of social care children and adults and education. We cant skimp.

My local park has managed to keep up a modest boating lake with those pedal boats. If this a frippery? I don't think so, looking at it people who can't afford holidays come long distances to enjoy it.

I think the days of fripperies has gone by and large.

Silverbrooks is correct. By far the biggest slice of Council Tax is spent on adult social care.

Car insurance, house insurance, broadband that increase without any rhyme or reason! Every year having to search for a cheaper deal.

I noticed something for the first time this year. All the cut price deals that come out in February looking very competitive but they all go up in April removing most of the advantages. Anyone else noticed this?

Car and house insurance though this year I used MSE to get a big car reduction by moving to the AA. BUPA is a voluntary bill but it still hurts, nonetheless it's worth it.

Our County Council spends twice as much on 'Fleet Maintenance' as it does on Highways and Flooding
Perhaps if they spent more on Highways and mending potholes they need not spend as much on Fleet Maintenance.

Looking at the percentages and the resulting figures a lot of it doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Our city council is responsible for benefits, building control, car parks, community events, community safety, Council Tax, economic development, environmental health, housing, licensing, markets, museums, city parks, planning, sports, street cleaning, waste collection.

Our county council is responsible for: adult social care, education and other child services, highways maintenance and sustainable transport, climate, environment, waste reduction and recycling, public health, libraries, coroners, registrars and country parks.

The library service costs the county council here around 16 million a year, around £45,000 a day. We have 74 libraries in cities, towns and villages plus 3 mobile libaries. I use library services extensively. We are part of the Library Consortium, a group of 23 public library authorities giving residents access to a huge range of books and resources not just those in local county stock. Then there are the extensive e-resources, e-books, e-audiobooks, newpapers magazines, reference materials etc.

I express costs as a daily amount to try to keep perspective when all around are moaning. Council tax is £6.40 a day. My choice for living in a house that’s too big for me. I could reduce that to £3.50 a day if I moved to a band B.

Energy, water, TV Licence total £3.50 a day - less than the price of a cup of coffee in town.

Council tax = less than two cups of coffee, or coffee and cake, or just 40p more than the cost of the 3 mile round trip into town on the bus if I didn’t have a government-funded pensioner bus pass.

My car insurance is due for renewal. I’ve just had the quote which includes RAC breakdown cover (including home start) worth £75 if you buy it separately. My car is old so it’s worth having that for peace of mind. The total is £209 which includes £45 Intermediary Services Fee which is the broker fee for for arranging, servicing, and renewing the policy. So the cost of insuring the car itself only £89. The premium has gone up by £9.00 for the year or 2.5p per day. I can live with that! Only a couple of quotes fractionally cheaper so I’m staying put this year.

No question, the one I fear is Income Tax

Ducking for cover now!

fancythat

Out of just those 4, yes Council Tax.

I looked into once, living off grid.
Unless we sold the property, Council tax still had to be paid.
Not many ways that are elible for not paying it.

We lived off grid for 20 years. Our council tax was calculated in the mooring fees.

Unlike the other bills mentioned here, your income tax bill will only have risen if your income has risen David. And you will know what your income is, what tax bracket you’re in and therefore how much you will have to pay. No surprises. Or are you hinting at how well off you are?

I HATE paying BBC licence. It infuriates me, but my biggest out of these is the heating which is approx 2K a year. It is very necessary though here in Scotland.

On an aside, I used MSE to swap for cheaper energy but didn't realise they didn't 't 'swap' over the negative balance to the new company so ended up with an extra bill for £350! Not a happy bunny!

I'm astonished at your car insurance quote, silverlining!
DH was quoted nearly £800 for a 1.3 litre, 4 year old quite ordinary vehicle. He has had no accidents. That was with his usual provider so he shopped around and did find a better offer, but why is it necessary to do this?

It's like that advert - Brand new customers only are the ones who get the better deal.
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