Thousands to be probed in council tax crackdown

“your wasting your time commenting on here. All you will get is people aimlessly clicking the red negative comment marks on people who make normal comments regardless. THats the problem with internet commenting. the system just becomes over run. utter waste of time”

“I think you probably read more into people's posts than is actually there. I wasn't 'having a go' at anyone except the person who said "The council says the discounts cost £23.5million every year". The idea that the single person discount costs the council money is wrong. It's like saying paying only 20% tax costs the treasury money just because we're not paying 45% tax like the rich people. To tax a single person 75% of the rate a couple pay is actually a very high tax rate when you consider that the couple are only paying 50% each. That means a single person has to pay 25 percentage points more towards state employee pensions, elderly care costs, education when we don't cause these costs to be higher. Most of the council costs are per person/child/care receiver rather than per household. I can only think of bins that are per household, and that doesn't make up anywhere near enough of a cost to make single people pay 25 percentage points more council tax than couples. Rant over. Doesn't everyone feel better?”

“@nothalf - I suppose it's because I read so much rubbish on here that it provokes comment? When we get into the frame of mind that we should only pay for what we use then that's the slippery slope for society. And that's not a blinkered view, that's a fact.

The elderly have contributed to the community all their lives. They paid for the services that timplymouth used as a child.

Why pick on the elderly who have contributed more since the wars than anybody else in the country?

Go for the scroungers, yes, but to vilify the elderly? Why?”

“@ Foldart, you're always stubbornly obtuse when it comes to other peoples comments that veer even slightly from your own blinkered view, why?”

“why the council asking credit agency to check, surley this is against the data protection act”

“This is a disgrace!
Just because I pay my council tax I am being denied the opportunity to be probed.
You couldn't make it up.”

“@micromarke - I apologise for timplymouth. He forgets that as part of a society he contributes to the social welfare of all its citizens. Yes, he pays for libraries, refuse collection, schools, traffic wardens, the police and emergency services, bus travel subsidies, roads, pavements et al.

I'm sure that 90% of his council tax doesn't go on just on 'families and the elderly' unless of course, he's a hermit living on Dartmoor.

He's just a silly boy who likes to make grandiose statements because he's heard them before from someone else and thought them clever.

@timplymouth - If you don't like paying your council tax then do the decent thing and leave society because I doubt it wants you either. You could join the travellers?”

“I didn't say my council tax was going to ALL elderly people. It is a simple fact that elderly care is where a large proportion of all council tax ends up. Perhaps you are being a bit over sensitive?”

“Re timplymouth comment. Suggest you do not make "All in Comments" regarding your "Cross subsidising the elderly. My wife and I are in our Seventies and receive NOT a PENNY subsidy from the Local Authority. Not even a Bus Pass. We are not affluent by any means, just have the State Pension and a a small works pension that I paid 9% of my Wages for during my working life. The only Local Authority Service we receive is Refuse collection. I also presume by your comment that you are NOT a family person and have no intention of becoming ELDERLY.”

“It seems like no checks are made on anybody for anything anymore, it's a disgrace, and the council and government are just to lazy to even care until something reaches epidemic proportions.”