Today a 75 year old war veteran was jailed for not paying his council tax bill of £1300 is this fair?

Question

remember it will have cost a lot more that that to take him to court in the first place..is it time for a change in tax?.....and will you let them in if they come to "reband" your house??

I have heard that council tax may be based on home improvements you have done as well as market value of your property and that inspecters will be checking inside and out of your homes to reband

Answer 1

This country is set up to aid the mugger, ,junky and rapist .
A war hero jailed for a single offence thats what we would
expect today , the system is seriously fxxked up.

Answer 2

It does seem a shame. However, he would have been notified on many occasions before it got to this stage that the money was owing and it is his decision to continue not paying it. If it was a case of he wasn't able to pay then more advice should have been offered to him or he should have made the council aware that he had difficulties in paying and some other arrrangement could have been made. It seems like quite a lot of money to have to pay. There are benefits available for the elderly to help with council tax payments and rebates if they claim certain other benefits or live alone so I wonder if he is aware of all that and whether he sought any advice.

It is difficult to know what to suggest in terms of tax. The money has got to come from somewhere so there must be some sort of system to collect it. Any system they use will be as bad as the next one, I suppose.

I don't think that they are pressing ahead with re-banding at the present time in any case. When they banded them the first time, they didn't need access to the house, they just assessed them from the outside and all houses of a similar nature were automatically put in that band.

Answer 3

I feel sorry for the old chap,The fact he fought for his country is significant however, but if I were him, I could find more reason to feel fcuked over by my country than being slung in jail for not paying my council tax bill. The council tax system is unfair, why do we have to pay for things that some of us don't use like schools, for example, I'm sure that old man has no use for schools. I've came to expect no less from the councils of Britain, they are draconian and ridiculous, narrow minded fools. They can fcuk off if they want inside my house, it is not open to council snoopers!

Answer 4

I cannot understand why this happened.

If the man was on a low income he should be in receipt of Council Tax Benefit; if not then he has enough money to pay his Council Tax.

Why should those who cannot afford to pay be penalised and those who can afford to pay not penalised?

I'm also sure that, as has happened in other cases, someone will pay the £1300 and the man will be out of prison by tomorrow!

As for "re-banding" - if this ever happens they will not need to enter your house; it is calculated on the market value of your property, and so no entry is required.

Answer 5

I think it is appaling that people are taxed as much as they are and how the government spends their money to finance their own lifestyles. There is no justice in this and even the poor are hit the hardest due to rising taxation every year.

We are now going to be hit with the green-tax now being introduced to cut gas emmissions and yet, it is the government and the aristocrats that have been the main culprits who had given rise to the industrial reveolution that has now led to global pollution. Their earnings can at least afford to remedy the problem and to not waste it on the national lottery and nuclear war-heads that cost millions a peice.

It is scrupulous to jail a man of 75 after serving for his own country and penalise him for what seems like a minor amount of money compared to an income of a politician. Okay, he did wrong in the eyes of the law by not paying, but to jail him is absoloutley ridiclous and he may as well have died in the line of duty some fifty years ago if he were going to be rewarded for his efforts through imprisonment.

It was a very different time for soldiers fifty years ago and for many, it was their only means of income but to join the army and many were enlisted out of the threat of having their homes removed from them if they failed to do service in the war. It is so hard to imagine just what that poor veteran must be feeling. It is senseless to imprison somone on the basis of something so trivial.

They allow serial peadophiles to live in communities and tax poor people so hard and yet raise their annual wages by a mere few pence in the pound. Many are still on hourly-rate jobs like me and earn as little as £250 or less a week and yet they take 22% of my wages to fund their passion for nuclear war heads.....they don't spend it on good health care or anything of relevance to people's lives.

I am pretty sure that the government has access to free legal aid and this is why they don't have to fork out to take somone to court . If they did, then if we all stopped paying council tax, then they would have a real crisis on their hands and start having to dig deep as legal aid would go bankrupt and no money to spend on prisons to house us all!. But they are vindictive and cruel as far as I am concerned and have a lot to feel very guilty and ashamed for their actions.

Answer 6

Its not fair, however if this guy was an immigrant he would live council tax free! I resent paying for council tax for services i neither need nor use, a pay as you go system would be much fairer. As an example i dont want Street Lighting, its cheaper to buy a wind up torch. I never go to the Doctor so would rather not pay N.I. contributions, i'd rather pay as i'm treated, it may sound selfish but i don't want to pay for other peoples medical treatment.This country is designed to milk the population dry

Answer 7

he should have sold some drugs or mugged somebody to be able to pay it off, even better if he had stole a car to be able to carry this out.
He could also have changed his religion and claimed discrimination.
I assume he is English which is a pity as he could of claimed asylum and got it paid for him
He would then be eligible to sue the government for the stress he has had
Cant he contact one of the human rights do gooders and he might get it paid and a free holiday

Answer 8

So if he had murdered someone, do you think he should be set free?

The law is the law.

They do not put people in prison until it is the last resort, so he has probably had plenty of chances. If he is facing hardship, then the benefits system would help.

Easy answer, if you don't want to go to prison, don't break the law!

Answer 9

no it weren't fair. He's a war veteran and he should have his the council tx bill PAID FOR. Rather than these 14 year old mothers with 5 kids.

Answer 10

It is an absolute disgrace although he will have been given some options before he was sentenced. He has effectively chosen to go to jail, probably to raise the issue of unmanagable taxation for OAP's. That is the disgrace.