council tax

[dilligaf]

Have just heard a 73 year old put in prison for not baying �53? backlog of Council Tax. Thank god. Another hardened criminal behind bars.
What a laughing stock this country must appear to the rest of the world.

[butter1]

I agree, this is absolutely stupid.  I'm not sure if anyone was aware but the cost for her stay in prison will cost tax payers �2,000.  Ggrrrr, makes me so angry!

[january_bug]

PS - Last word was meant to be "man".  And also, in a moment of denial I typed that I'm a student.  Sadly that's actually no longer true.  But only just!  And I've still got one more graudation to go. 

Sorry dilligaf - I know this is irrelevant to your question.  Are your views unchanged having read the thread today?

[ursula62]

I heard she insisted on going to prison on principle and refused the offers of others to pay the arrears on her behalf. It sounds like she was determined to undergo a custodial sentence to prove a point. If she believes in her cause that much then good luck to her!

[shaneystar]

This silly woman must be able to afford to pay her council otherwise she would get help to be able to pay it. She is making a point at the taxpayers expense which cheeses me off immensely.I don't mind my money going to keep a murderer off the streets but not this daft bat. I had to retire through ill health and Mr.S. retired because after 45 years at the grindstone because he had enough. We still have to pay our council tax and other bills on a reduced income.I bet if she was burgled or had a fire in her home she would be only too pleased to see the emergency services which the council tax goes towards amongst other things.Or would she turn them away on principle.

[january_bug]

Well said Shaneystar!!!

[dilligaf]

Thanks for all your replies, thought that may get some response,
What I am trying to say is why do they lock her away when others who commit far more serious crimes are let of with say 100 hours comunity service?
Perhaps is she was given comunity service possibly to do some work the council is responsible for, her work would pay off the debt and perhaps the tasks would deter her from not paying in future.
Or there again if all of us who thought we were paying too much for services we dont receive responded as she did, what would the authorities do?
How many of you feel you are not receiving the services you are paying for?

[january_bug]

Quite happy with the service I get thanks. 

Perhaps she was given community service but refused to turn up. 

The woman actually WANTED to go to jail, so it's a waste of time trying to defend her rights.  She CHOSE that option.  It's her right to do that as a protest I suppose, but it annoys me that my tax partly paid for it.  :-S Grrrr!

[dilligaf]

Hello january_bug. Was going to answe to your earlier reply but did not get the chance. Thanks for you second answer, Think we may be on nthe same line. You say you are quite happy with the service you get. But then critisi

[dilligaf]

Sorry about the last answer, interrupted half way through and pressed the wrong key. Do you really think you get what you pay for? Hospital, Police, Dental care, to name but a few. Most of your money is wasted, as you say on paying for pathetic things like needless court cases, legal aid for lost causes. Why?

[january_bug]

Ah yes dilligaf, but most of the unecessary court cases these days are these selfish idiots who waste our council tax budgets by suing cos they got p1ssed and fell up the pavement.  They don't have the brain cells to rub together to realise they are actually stealing from their friends and neighbours, and from themselves in the long run.  THAT'S where the council tax goes, and what means a less than perfect service. 

Obviously bureaucracy is another factor, but that's pretty hard to fix. 

You mention dental care.  Yes, ok, I have to pay for my dental care.  And at �1 per tooth for checking, it's not cheap.  However, since that got removed from the NHS in this area, other things have been added, or the price of supplying existing services (i.e., pre dental cuts) has increased.  Just because a service is cut, doesn't mean the councillors (sp?) are hoarding it away for themselves.  It's spent on something else instead.  That something might be something I actually value more than dental services for free on the NHS. 

[Ding-Dong]

january_bug - are you a local government worker? I just ask as you are doing a marvellous job of praising the services you receive! Perhaps its just my area of the country where the service is p1ss poor: an example - our rubbish collection service has just been halved and I find myself in the position of paying �2500 a year and having to make weekly trips to the dump (this is in addition to all the recycling we do - this is just one example, there are many more.

In respect of the lady who went to jail for non-payment of CT, the irony here is that if she had burgled somebody to pay the CT, she wouldn't've been jailed!!!

[january_bug]

No, I work for a stockbrokers and want to be a commercial solicitor.  So pretty much the opposite of local government worker.  Would it make you happier if I pretended to be as miserable and pessimistic as the few of you who seem to hate it that I'm ocassionally happy?  You will have to face facts... not everyone hates living in this country, and some of us, though not millionaires (or anywhere close) are happy with our quality of life and accept that the quality of service we receive, whilst it could be improved, is not actually all that bad. 

The woman was released yesterday after two days in prison because someone else paid the bill.  She was angry that someone had paid it for her, and did not want to be relesaed. 

Does this snippet finally put an end to all this talk of it being unfair on the poor old dear?

[Ding-Dong]

Fair enough - I think I just must be prematurely (early 30's) cynical and grumpy.

Still - I've got man flu at the mo, so that's my excuse.

[january_bug]

You mean you sneezed once last Thursday!?! :-p

[Miss Zippy]

The criminal justice system is there to deal with and punish/rehabilitate criminals and this silly woman is a criminal. She could afford to pay her CT bill, but thought she�d pay what was fair. Mmm, let�s see, what do I get for the �1250 a month I pay in income tax? I rarely visit my GP, pay privately for a dentist, have private medical insurance, don�t have kids in the education system, never use public transport etc etc; think it's only fair I pay about �100 per month in income tax thank you. Life is about swings and roundabouts; we�re going to be better off in some areas of our life and worse off in others.  I expect most pensioners who are homeowners paid peanuts (relatively speaking) for the homes they live in and don�t appreciate that today�s first time buyers are seriously struggling to afford to live in homes the size of shoeboxes in some parts of the country.

[Ding-Dong]

Yep

[january_bug]

Bless you then.  :-)