A Future that Works

The Video Stream is the "A Future that Works" march that took place on Saturday, 20th October 2012 is supplied via livestream and was originally streamed live to viewers at the time of the march.

Watch live streaming video from occupylsx at livestream.com

Local Authorities expect trouble

Local authorities expect half of poor residents to refuse to pay council tax

Councils are budgeting for large losses after coalition's benefit changes mean 2 million low-income workers must pay tax

The full article here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/15/local-authorities-residents-council-tax

Suggested Responses

Nottingham City Council’s

Questionnaire on proposed Council Tax Support Scheme

(Our Suggested responses)

The information can be viewed here : http://defendcounciltaxbenefits.blogspot.co.uk/p/nottingham-city-councils-questionnaire.html

Meeting

We have a meeting on the : 
16^th October 2012 @ 7.30pm in Room 1 at the International Community Centre (YMCA) @ 61b Mansfield road, Nottingham.

please arrive early. There is limited parking in the ICC car park. Parking is available on the street  which is payable until 8pm  or in the Victoria Centre Car Park which is opposite the ICC

We have been busy with raising awareness of the campaign and the changes that people will be facing. A number of campaign stalls in St Anns have been run as well as at the Forest Recreation Ground. Our last campaign was at the Nottingham Goose Fair.

In addition to the campaign stalls members were on a recent coach trip that went to lobby Conservative Tory party conference. If you want to attend the meeting on 16^th October with a friend you are welcome to bring them and your support is appreciated.

Please note that Nottingham City Council’s consultation ends on 30^th October.

It would be good if you can attend one of their meetings to have your say about the changes that they are proposing. Our members have been attending these meetings to put the campaigns policy of “No Cuts” to the council. The council are always asking what we are doing as they  are clearly concerned by any campaign.

Please see the suggested responses post to make to the Nottingham City Council for to the consultation questionnaire found on the Nottingham City Council website.

Map of the meeting for Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign @ ICC on 16th October 2012.



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Council Meetings are below :

15 October: Please arrive by 11.00 am for a one hour session
St Ann's Valley Centre
St Ann's
Nottingham
NG3 3GG

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16 October: Please arrive by 11.00am for a one hour session
Broxtowe Education Skills Training (BEST) Centre
Denton Green
Broxtowe Estate
Nottingham
NG8 6GD

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18 October: Please arrive by 10.00am for a one hour session
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham
NG2 3NG

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Please note that those are meetings organized by the council and not the Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign Group whose meeting will be on 16^th October 2012 as stated at the top of this email.

Donation

Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union donated £10 to the Defend Council Tax benefits Campaign when he spoke at  a Labour Party meeting in Beeston recently.

Defend Council Tax Benefits

Welcome to : 
Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign

Here you will find links to other social networking tools.

Links to:

     Facebook (Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/333226320103342/

     Facebook (Page) : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Defend-Council-Tax-Benefits/448843248489160

     Twitter : https://twitter.com/defendbenefits

     tweet us @defendbenefits

 You can subscribe to this blog if you prefer not to join facebook or twitter.

Nottingham City Council's Savage Cuts

Nottingham City Council is proposing a savage attack on Council Tax Benefits

·         Every working age person and their partner would have to pay at least 20% of their Council Tax bill - with some similarity to the poll tax, an unwaged person on their own would be paying 20% of the bill

·         Council Tax Benefit would be based on a maximum of a band B property. Therefore,  if one member of a couple worked and one did not and the working person lost their job – they would pay:

·         If in a band B property, £251 per year - £5 a week

·         If in a band D property £606.92 a year – £11.67 per week – a massive 37% of their council tax

It gets worse

·         If people are able to save up for retirement or lose their job and receive some  redundancy money, if a person and/or their partner has savings above £6,000, they will not be entitled to any council Tax Benefit

·         And to add insult to injury- if a claim is not in on time and there can be many reasons for that – no backdating will be allowed!

·         The council is also considering  stopping CTB if the amount due  to a recipient is less than £2/week or £4/week

·         These proposals mean that many people will not be able to pay their council tax

·         Rather than pass on Con-Dem cuts, Nottingham and all other councils should refuse to pass government cuts on and should be building a massive campaign to fight for properly funded councils. Nottingham City Council say they lost a massive £60million in real terms in 2011/12.  Councils like Nottingham should stop using highly paid external consultants which costs £millions

If the councils do not want to fight for fully funded schemes, we need to build a massive community campaign involving the trade unions, many of whose members are facing these attacks.