So Sneaky – Council Tax And Disability In Birmingham

We’ve recieved this letter regarding the cuts to council tax benefit which will see unemployed and some disabled people having to find 20% of their council tax bill out of their benefits. You can check if you are eligible for continuing exemption from council tax you can check with the council benefit team through this webpage.

It is so random most people would be surprised, and effected people shocked, that if you get Income Support with a Disability Premium you get the full Council Tax Support in Birmingham, but if you get Employment and Support Allowance, even if in the Support Group, you don’t unless you also get DLA.

These are identical people! Just a matter of when they signed up, or whether they have been transfered over yet- could have been claiming for identical length of time and have identical levels of disability. Indeed, some in the ESA support group will be more disabled than those on the Income Support Disability Premium, which after all was not awarded based on how ill you are, but solely on duration of illness, whereas Support Group is for those deemed too ill to engage in work related activity.

Whether someone has been moved from IS to ESA yet is solely down to luck, and everyone will eventually- what will happen to all those people supposedly so deserving due to being on IS then? ESA support group may not have the word ‘disability’ in its name, but ‘You’re usually in this group if your illness or disability severely limits what you can do.’ https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/what-youll-get It is a disability-related benefit and should be included.

I’ve noticed a trend where council and government help is not mentioning the word ‘disability’ in the title etc, so that those receiving the help are not protected as that is a protected characteristic.

If you want to give it only to those on DLA (and hopefully PIP!) I could understand (though not agree) with that. But don’t make it so one group with an identical (or even with the qualifying group having less) level of disability to another, the difference being solely based on random luck, with half receiving support and half not.

Name and address withheld

P.S. I get DLA so this doesn’t effect me, I just thought it was obviously wrong, with no way of justifying why one particular group’s been excluded when they have equal grounds for getting it.

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