Council Tax - why do seniors have to pay the full amount?

PS I realise that she was asking how to achieve a £600 per month income to top up her earnings, but surely they could have found someone in serious financial straits to advise?

Yes, it really is a non-problem, many people would read that and think 'Whaaat???'

My OH had a double knee replacement making life very difficult for a few months. He requested a temporary BB was was turned down. I fumed constantly when we had to walk long distances past able bodied people with BBs on their car taking up the disabled spaces. It should be mandatory for the BB to be displayed with the photograph showing and wardens allowed to give out tickets to the owner of the car if the registered holder is not in attendance.

But that would mean them having to hang around waiting for the person entitled/not entitled to the BB to return to the car.

It wouldn't be practical, although I know sometimes the system is abused.

Our Tesco used to have a man who checked parking. I spoke to him when i had my knee done as I could only get in/out of my car if I could open the door fully, He noted my reg and said I could park in a disabled bay with no problem. Nice man, but he did tell me a tale. He spotted a police car parked in a disabled bay, when they returned he asked them if there had been a problem, they said "No, we were just getting some lunch", he had great pleasure in giving them a ticket.
On the A14 today in a traffic jam, there was a police van behind me with two women in it, the driver was on her mobile phone each time we stopped --- naughty.

Oh for goodness' sake! The DT has regular advice columns about invesing money, of which this is one. This isn't an article about her being hard done by or her benefits. It's about how to invest a lump sum in these low interest rate days. The advice is rubbish anyway, because she won't get a full state pension. She'll have a considerable amount deducted from the basic amount, because she's opted out for so many years.

I don't know what can be done about the abuse of blue badge spaces either by people who haven't got one or are misusing someone else's. I suppose one idea could be very harsh punishments and then word would get round

Monica yes, I can choose supermarkets, but the nearest (Waitrose) is 7 miles away, Morrison's is about 12 miles Lidl about 10!, Possibly more

Yes Daphne for goodness sake. I know full well what the article was aiming to do. I was merely pointing out the fact that in spite of seeming comfortably placed she was able to claim £900pm in benefits when she had decided to give up a well paid job in order to spend more time with her children. Most people are not given the same luxury and I sympathise with the circumstances which led to her problem. My own D is a single mum and I know the problems, if she could access £900 in benefits she would be a happy woman. I will leave this thread now and will not contribute to any threads concerning finance, politics etc. I will stay in lala land with pleasant and concerned people, and yes I have had a very bad and frustrating day.

DaphneBroon, I watched the Michael MacIntyre clip this morning, after my breakfast. Thanks, it was so funny. Then I watched the next one, and the next one..... I know, no self control, and was then late going shopping. Waitrose was one stop, then M&S, then Poundstretcher. Varied hmmm.

@annsixty

The details of her previously well paid job were given to explain why she doesn't need to build up capital for retirement. You have no idea why she had to give up her job. Maybe she was like me and soldiered on with a full-time job and two young children as a single parent until I really couldn't cope.

The article wasn't intended as a sob story or a moralistic critique of her lifestyle or choices. It appeared in the regular column which the DT runs giving people financial advice.

It wasn't eliciting sympathy. It was giving advice on how to invest money to generate income for a limited period, which is a problem many people have, if they have a lump sum and interest rates are so low. The rest of the details are irrelevant.

Off topic completely. I've just bought a bunch of lovely flowers from Tesco for 5p. Well chuffed!

phoenix, mind if i look in your cupboard ?

annesixty, come and join my gang and have a cuppa

Thank you grannypiper as I have had a fairly (very) stressful day, I have had a glass or two of red so a cuppa will go down well and your gang sounds fun.

daphnedil I think we all realise that the DT article was about how this young woman could best invest a very substantial sum of money to get a good return.

The article also stated that she needed to get a good return to help replace the £900!! she had been receiving in benefits per month which had been cruelly taken away from her since she moved in with a new partner.

All this whilst pensioners on low incomes are struggling to pay their council tax - this woman is an accountant - if she can't sort out her own finances then she must have been quite useless at her job.

daphnedil oh for goodness' sake

Why so impatient towards other posters?
and you seem to have missed the point but perhaps deliberately.

No wonder some people avoid or abandon some threads
It can't be much fun or very interesting, though, to end up with people on some of the threads who are all of a like mind, agreeing with one another

I haven't missed the point, deliberately or not.

By the way, have you done a survey? If you do decide to run one, could you include mindless bullying as one of the options?

Did you have the word 'cruelly' in your version of the story?

Ah! Poor pensioners! (Nothing to do with the story at all - another red herring.)

I'm a bit at the posts aimed at daphnedill. What has she done to elicit such responses? What was wrong with her commenting on a story about a young woman that was brought into a thread dealing with pensioners and their rights to otherwise to certain benefits/help? The facts we have are not sufficient to 'judge' her or the benefits system but fwiw I think it's great that she's found a new partner, they are living together, she wants and is able, to spend more time with her children and she has a hefty capital sum ( so must have been doing something right with her finances) to invest. Really poor pensioners get substantial help with their council tax as pps have said.

I've just read these posts Rigby and I can't see what 'responses' you mean. What I can see is people getting a bit irritated at a perceived manipulation of the benefit system and arguing their point.

But dies it make sense to argue a point without the facts?

You can't say something is a 'manipulation' ( whatever that means anyway) without knowing much more than the DT tells us and draw any conclusions from such a lack f information.

Does not dies

One can argue the point in principle.

And of course you know what manipulation means.