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

yogitree

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!

Is that £350 what your old provider owe you because you were in credit with them yogitree?
They should refund that.

If you were £350 in debit with your old energy provider that is a debt you have to pay them yogitree. No new provider would take that on.

I hate them all but they have to be paid so pay all by DD then I don't worry about missing a payment.

I can't understand my water bills though, when my adult children left home I thought the water bills would be reduced due to much less water being used , eg 3/4 showers a day every day but the price remained the same and has gone up yearly ever since . [Hmm]

MorningMist

If you were £350 in debit with your old energy provider that is a debt you have to pay them yogitree. No new provider would take that on.

I got that the wrong way round, I think!

council tax, single person rate is now £239 per month. A very unfair tax, it should be based on the number of adults who can work and all old properties should be re-valued

I am happy to pay for all these services to be honest...
I do wish the utilities weren't privately owned though

Wasn't it the poll tax that did for Thatcher? People were charged per adult rather than house size. It would have suited me as a single person in a large house but basically unfair.

Maintenance costs on my old property are huge which is why I shall be downsizing soon.

There is a lot of wastage in town halls, I agree witzend.
Last week I received a cheque for £2 from my council for a class that had to be cancelled. I should have framed it.

Road Tax - our roads are horrendous, pot holes everywhere 🤬

Trouble is GG13 it doesn’t go directly for that, it goes into a big pot for all sorts and then divvied out to The Department for Transport, even more annoying

Council tax. Having worked for the council I know how much taxpayers money is wasted.

Jaxjacky

Trouble is GG13 it doesn’t go directly for that, it goes into a big pot for all sorts and then divvied out to The Department for Transport, even more annoying

Exactly JaxJacky

I don’t resent tv license as I watch tv a lot when I m ‘home alone’
I resent the water bill as they are not cleaning up our rivers and seas enough and make massive gains the rest I just pay up and try not to think about it

After the single person discount my council tax is £225 a month. I’m in a village with virtually no public transport, I live on a lane with no pavement or street lights (but its fair share of potholes), and I bitterly resent that this bill takes almost a quarter of my monthly income.

Of the four things listed in the OP, it's Council Tax for me.

What I particularly dislike about it is that the council tax bands do not reliably represent people's ability to pay.
For example, social housing is often allocated in a way that offers tenants little or no choice of property, but is certainly not always in the lowest band.

Despite the discomfort, we have a certain amount of control over how much we spend on the rest.

Water.

I live on the coast near a number of rivers that flow from the Weald to the sea and see first hand what they are doing to our waterways.

I resent every penny I pour into the company’s coffers that should have been used to regenerate the infrastructure but instead has been used to line their pockets.

Mine is a bill for gas and electricity for the past five months that will be arriving any day soon. I have being staying in my static caravan on a caravan site while my house is being built and the park owner only issues the bills at certain times of the year with no option to pay a monthly direct debit. Unit costs are high - electricity around 60p per unit and calor gas 70p per unit. To prevent burst pipes and keep the van above 6 degrees it has been necessary to have the heating on until recently so I am reckoning on around £1000 (and the caravan never reached above 13 degrees on any day so it was a very long, cold winter!) No washing machine, no fridge or freezer, minimal lamps on, loads of layers of clothes, etc. Honestly wouldn't mind paying the money had I been even remotely warm but I think I was cold every day from October till mid March! Last two weeks have been blissful.

We live on Anglesey, North Wales. Having received our latest rates bill, one resident published the Council’s staffs earnings which has left me flabbergasted. 4 staff members are on over £100,000 a year! We are a tiny island, absolutely ridiculous!!

I remember my mum (we are going back some time now) complaining about her council tax bills. Yes she had got stuck in a 4 bedroom house and paying for that but she grumbled what do I get for it.

My sister pointed out that she had 4 children gone through free education including free nursery care and free university grants on all 4 from the council. All 4 children had careers serving the public.

What goes around comes around.

Poppyred

We live on Anglesey, North Wales. Having received our latest rates bill, one resident published the Council’s staffs earnings which has left me flabbergasted. 4 staff members are on over £100,000 a year! We are a tiny island, absolutely ridiculous!!

Wow, that’s an outrageous salary for council staff on such a tiny island ! What is the population of Anglesey - lovely place to stop off before the ferry to Dublin .. is it the wind farm costs??

Bea65

Poppyred

We live on Anglesey, North Wales. Having received our latest rates bill, one resident published the Council’s staffs earnings which has left me flabbergasted. 4 staff members are on over £100,000 a year! We are a tiny island, absolutely ridiculous!!

Wow, that’s an outrageous salary for council staff on such a tiny island ! What is the population of Anglesey - lovely place to stop off before the ferry to Dublin .. is it the wind farm costs??

I don’t know Bea65 but we have been in special measures on more than one occasion for incompetence 🙄

I live in the Thames Water area, a corrupt value free company, which is financially and morally bankrupt.

I begrudge them every penny I pay them.

Bea65

Poppyred

We live on Anglesey, North Wales. Having received our latest rates bill, one resident published the Council’s staffs earnings which has left me flabbergasted. 4 staff members are on over £100,000 a year! We are a tiny island, absolutely ridiculous!!

Wow, that’s an outrageous salary for council staff on such a tiny island ! What is the population of Anglesey - lovely place to stop off before the ferry to Dublin .. is it the wind farm costs??

Surely these are the directors of the council? Controlling a multi million pound budget? I don’t think those salaries are excessive for that level of responsibility, I’m sure every council in the UK pays their directors at that level.

I agree Casdon. Salaries of that order are the norm for senior managers in local authorities. My own local council has six employees who are paid in excess of £100k.

I think the problem with those salaries is two fold.
1. Where does a council who claims to be short of money finds the funds for those salaries.

2. The people receiving them don’t seem to be addressing things that need doing-e.g. roads, pavements, bins, school buildings etc. with the excuse that there isn’t enough money. only enough to pay the salaries.

comparison of salaries for comparable work (google)

"AI Overview
Learn more
In general, salaries for council leaders (like chief executives) are significantly lower than those of CEOs in the private sector. While local authorities are striving for fairness and transparency in pay, including promoting the living wage, comparison with private sector pay is often seen as demonstrating the lower compensation for public sector leaders. For example, the chief executive to median pay ratio in local authorities is far lower than in the private sector.
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