Legion petition calls on PM to help pensioners by rebranding council tax benefit
25 February 2009
No 10 Downing Street
General Sir John Kiszely, The Royal British Legion's newly appointed National President has today handed in a petition signed by some 25,000 members and supporters, calling on the Government to rebrand Council Tax Benefit as a 'rebate' in order to help bring UK pensioners out of poverty.
The petition is a key part of the Legion's Return to Rationing? campaign - supported by Age Concern – which is seeking to highlight the huge struggle older people, many of them Armed Forces Veterans, are facing just to make to ends meet in the economic downturn.
The Legion has found that over a third of the ex-Service community over the age of 65 have an income that is inadequate to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Probably the most significant household expense for older people is their Council Tax bill which, on average, has more than doubled since Council Tax was introduced in 1993.
The Director General of The Royal British Legion, Chris Simpkins, says:
"The Legion is regularly contacted by older people who struggle to pay their Council Tax from their fixed incomes. Council Tax Benefit is meant to make the tax fairer by reducing tax liability in line with a household's ability to pay; it is therefore very important to older people. Yet only a little over half of all pensioners who qualify for Council Tax Benefit actually make a claim, partly because of uncertainty about eligibility, an aversion to benefits or due to the complexity of making a claim.
"Research shows that take-up could be significantly higher and some 20,000 Armed Forces pensioners could benefit if Council Tax Benefit was rebranded as a rebate. We believe that rebranding Council Tax Benefit as a 'rebate' before the next general election is a deliverable, cost-effective measure that the Government could take to address this unacceptably low level of take-up and help lift pensioners out of poverty. The Government should show it is listening and respond to this petition by committing now to making this practical and viable change."
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For further information, please contact:
Charlotte Tailby
Tel: 02 3207 2240
or visit http://www.returntorationing.org.uk/
Notes to Editors: In June 2008, Ipsos MORI carried out a survey on the Legion’s behalf and found that 38% of veterans, spouses and widow(er)s reported existing on an income below the Minimum Income for Healthy Living; £7072 per annum, or £136 per week for a single person and £11,200 or £216 for a couple.
The Lyons Inquiry into Local Government highlighted that when the old domestic rates regime was in place, the term 'rebate' was used instead of the term, 'benefit'. Take-up rates were around 90% for older people then, far higher than the current estimated take-up rate of 55-61%. Moreover, Ipsos MORI research has found that 56% of respondents believed eligible veterans would be more likely to claim Council Tax Benefit if it were known as a 'rebate', rather than a 'benefit'. And Independent Age found that one in seven pensioners would not undergo means testing for benefits even if it meant foregoing income.
The 2006 National Audit Office report, Progress in tackling pensioner poverty: encouraging take-up of entitlements, estimated that just a 10% increase in take-up of Council Tax Benefit could lift 47,000 pensioners out of poverty.
