Rayner Will Not Rule Out Abolishing Council Tax Single Occupier Discount

ruthiek

Pensioners wouldn’t have voted them in if Labour had put it in their manifesto

I think they would, because the majority are more concerned about the demise of the NHS and other public services under a Tory government. We can’t have the penny and the bun unfortunately.

MissAdventure

I'm hoping the big, most important issues will be first on the agenda, with expenses maybe being addressed way down the line.

It's not as if Starmer introduced and implemented MP expenses.

Myth busting -

MP’s pay and expenses are controlled by IPSA -the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority set up by the last government in 2010 in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act.The current government does not control it any more than previous ones since that date.

www.theipsa.org.uk/who-we-are

I doubt any section of society would vote for things that might impact them, personally.

These things are only OK when they affect others.

Pensioners wouldn’t have voted them in if Labour had put it in their manifesto

That's where I think his often unappreciated strength lies.

I know, MissA. Quite honestly in his shoes I wouldn’t care about the criticism either. He’d get it whatever he did, so he may as well roll with the punches and get on with his agenda.

I'm hoping the big, most important issues will be first on the agenda, with expenses maybe being addressed way down the line.

It's not as if Starmer introduced and implemented MP expenses.

As I understand it MPs became salaried and got expenses so that those representing areas far from London could survive. Travel from Portsmouth or Northumberland would be very expensive and would disadvantage people who have to spend their time in both their constituency and the HofC.

At my workplace we got allowances to entertain guests and visiting lecturers- nothing fancy, but we weren’t expected to fork out ourselves- it’s perfectly normal, even in education, which is notoriously penny pinching.

If KS had an eye for public relations he could ask for cheaper food to be served I suppose, but he’s more concerned about getting the country back on its feet, I think. He doesn’t care about popularity. Also, even if he insisted that the HofC canteen only served food approved of by 30p Lee, people would find something else to criticise. There are false equivalences everywhere you look.

Mollygo

^there is no reason why pensioners with high incomes should be given money that younger people are not.^

Exactly!

By the same reasoning;

There is no reason why MPs on £91k should be given subsidised meals when other workers are not.

Fact check
catering services on the parliamentary estate are effectively subsidised by the taxpayers at a cost of millions of pounds each year.
(However, the yearly total is significantly lower than £17 million claimed on X)

There is no reason why MPs should get hefty travel/living expenses, when it costs other people a large chunk of their earnings to get to and from work.

We’ve already learned which unfairness will be addressed.

They shouldnt get travel expenses within “commuting” distance, many travel a large distance from their constituency so they do need expenses and subsistence, they would get it in most employment.

The hours they work also warrants some catering support, I’m sure their after hours socializing is discussing with others relevant political issues.

Abolishing the single household 25% discount would not just be "unpopular". Whipped up by social media and the gutter press it could promote the same kind of rebellion as the Poll Tax Riots. The courts are bogged down and the prisons are full. Many people would refuse to pay the extra and be willing to be taken to court. People who are self employed would "cook the books" and declare a lower profit so recoup the money that way. People on housing or council tax benefit would have most of it made up any way,

Councils are notorious for waste and squander vast amounts of money on vanity projucts, diversity schemes and other dreary woke nonsense. I think this is a hill many would be prepared to die on.

Allira, my understanding of the free childcare was that it encourages parental working. It attempts to adress the issue, for the less well paid, of being better off on benefits.

That's a bit all over the place, sorry, I can't seem to see the whole message box to correct mistakes.

Goodness knows where that superfluous external came from, we need an edit button like MN.

Young people are already burdened with crippling housing and childcare costs

Working parents can get:
15 hours free childcare a week for two-year-olds from April 2024
15 hours free childcare for nine month olds from September 2024

30 hours free childcare for three and four-year-olds, external was already available
30 hours free childcare for all under-fives from September 2025

To qualify for the new hours, the majority of parents must earn more than £9,518,, external but less than £100,000 per year.

That is not joint income, it is based on each income of less than £100,000 so in effect up to £198,000 pa as I understood it.

It has to be funded somehow, they are the future.

We are the past.

BBC News

It has to be paid fof somehow.

How do you know that Mollygo, I didn’t realise we were party to decisions made about parliamentary expenses until after the event?

there is no reason why pensioners with high incomes should be given money that younger people are not.

Exactly!

By the same reasoning;

There is no reason why MPs on £91k should be given subsidised meals when other workers are not.

Fact check
catering services on the parliamentary estate are effectively subsidised by the taxpayers at a cost of millions of pounds each year.
(However, the yearly total is significantly lower than £17 million claimed on X)

There is no reason why MPs should get hefty travel/living expenses, when it costs other people a large chunk of their earnings to get to and from work.

We’ve already learned which unfairness will be addressed.

Freya5

Doodledog

Why do you think that pensioners should be exempt from the crippling costs that the last government has landed us with? Statistics suggest that pensioners voted them in,

So pensioners have to pay because they voted Conservative. There are young people who also vote for them.
That is despicable. The"black hole" hasn't stopped this awful Government from throwing billions at vanity projects.
Sickening argument and not unexpected from a Labour supporter.

Sickening? Despicable? Not unexpected from a Labour supporter?

Sheesh! Is that in the spirit of Gransnet? I have as much right to an opinion as you do, and I never resort to personal insults when giving it.

The country is in a mess, after fourteen years of Tory ineptitude. Money has to be raised to make things better. Young people are already burdened with crippling housing and childcare costs, and they never got WFP. Why shouldn't the burden be spread across the generations? I am very conscious of the fact that there is a demographic who will lose out, as they don't get pension credit but are not much better off than those who do. That demographic also suffers from not getting the numerous benefits that PC brings. My feelings about means-tests are well-known, and I would have found a different way to cut off the WFP, but there is no reason why pensioners with high incomes should be given money that younger people are not.

What is 'despicable' or 'sickening' about that?

Freya, what do you mean by vanity projects ?i haven't noticed any .

Freya5

Doodledog

Why do you think that pensioners should be exempt from the crippling costs that the last government has landed us with? Statistics suggest that pensioners voted them in,

So pensioners have to pay because they voted Conservative. There are young people who also vote for them.
That is despicable. The"black hole" hasn't stopped this awful Government from throwing billions at vanity projects.
Sickening argument and not unexpected from a Labour supporter.

Freya5, this situation grieves Labour voters more, because we could see for 14 years that the last government was digging huge holes all over the place, and services were being run down hugely, which ultimately Labour would be left to dig the country out of. Reinstating WFP isn’t the answer to anything, but alternative measures to make sure the poorest pensioners don’t suffer have to be taken.

Which "vanity" projects?

Doodledog

Why do you think that pensioners should be exempt from the crippling costs that the last government has landed us with? Statistics suggest that pensioners voted them in,

So pensioners have to pay because they voted Conservative. There are young people who also vote for them.
That is despicable. The"black hole" hasn't stopped this awful Government from throwing billions at vanity projects.
Sickening argument and not unexpected from a Labour supporter.

A little while ago I thought that the next thing might be a Euthanasia Bill but it was a cynical thought. It would save the Government billions.

However, I wasn't far wrong:

news.sky.com/story/labour-mp-could-bring-forward-assisted-dying-bill-to-parliament-13210058

Hypothermia? euthanasia? The choice might be yours, or perhaps not.

Lovetopaint037

Stir, stir, stir. This might happen. That may happen. That person hasn’t ruled something out. Our beloved Telegraph who dishes out every scaremongering lying bit of dirt they can think up on a daily basis is counting on the lies turning into rumours which spread into accepted fact. Ignore the Telegraph. It is no longer an unbiased respectable newspaper. Lies are now its bread and butter. The right wing of the Tory Party is its boss.

The other newspapers are no better, only interested in selling sensation and scandal, why do you buy them, I DONT.

Stir, stir, stir. This might happen. That may happen. That person hasn’t ruled something out. Our beloved Telegraph who dishes out every scaremongering lying bit of dirt they can think up on a daily basis is counting on the lies turning into rumours which spread into accepted fact. Ignore the Telegraph. It is no longer an unbiased respectable newspaper. Lies are now its bread and butter. The right wing of the Tory Party is its boss.

Cossy said "Let’s all not panic. All changes need to go through both the HoC and the HoL"

Can I point out that Starmer and Reeves wanted to push through the cancelling of the WFA without a HoC vote? They have been forced into having a debate and vote on it. Although, I think there is no doubt they will win due to their majority.