RESIDENTS who claim council tax benefit could be £138 worse off over the next year due to Government changes, it has been claimed.
From Monday, the national council tax benefit scheme will be abolished under the Welfare Reform Act, with responsibility for discounts being passed on to local councils.
Nottingham City Council has opposed the change, saying it will mean thousands of people in the city will be worse off.
The authority says the amount of money it has been given by the Government to set up a new council tax support scheme is lower than what residents received on existing council tax benefits.
The existing benefits reduce the amount of council tax that low-income households have to pay.
Now anti-poverty think-tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has claimed more than two million households in England will pay at least £138 a year more council tax from next week because of the benefit changes.
Nottingham East MP Chris Leslie said: "Potentially in the St Ann's, Hyson Green, and Sneinton areas of my constituency, there are a lot of people who have been on 100 per cent council tax benefits because of their low or no-income status.
"I think from next week it's going to really dawn on people and be quite a burden, especially when combined with other benefit changes also due to come into force. This is going to be a real hit to their limited spare income."
He added: I'm very worried about what will happen in six months' time when these people find it impossible to meet their payments and find themselves before the courts."
Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood said: "This report, written by an influential independent organisation, confirms that once again it will be Nottingham's poorest people who will be hit by the Government's cuts to local councils.
"19,000 people in Nottingham will have to find extra money for council tax bills as a result of the Tory-led Government's latest changes.
"Some of them face a double-whammy as they are also being hit by the bedroom tax. The Government is unfairly targeting Nottingham's most vulnerable families whilst simultaneously cutting taxes for millionaires."
Christopher Sneap, 52, of Wollaton Park, receives council tax benefit.
He said: "My cost of living will go up. I will struggle.
"Although I also receive a disability benefit, these changes will mean a big chunk of my allowances will have to cover the extra council tax."
A 50-year-old man from the Arboretum, who also claims council tax benefit and asked not to be named, said: "They are penalising those who have very little. It should be those who have the most money being targeted.
"If you want the economy to recover, money needs to be moving. How can you move money amongst those who haven't got anything?"
Nottingham City Council's deputy leader, Councillor Graham Chapman, said: "This change is a very expensive way of hurting a lot of poor people as it will cost £5m to set up.
"Although the cut is billed as 10 per cent, when you take into account that we are expected, by law, to protect pensioners, and then take into account inflation, the cut for those who will be affected is actually a great deal more than that, and year on year it'll get worse.
"It is unfair and it is taking spending power out of the economy at a time when we need to provide growth to create jobs."
The research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found 232 local authorities had devised schemes that would demand council tax from everyone regardless of income, while 58 will retain current levels of support for families.
The organisation concluded: "This restructuring of the benefits system, together with a 10 per cent cut in funding, will create considerable challenges for local authorities, advice services and benefit recipients alike."
It added: "Cuts to means-tested benefits exclusively hit lower-income households.
"When council tax support is introduced, most councils will start to collect a tax from families previously deemed too poor to pay.
"With approximately two million working-age council tax benefit claimants in poverty, and a further 300,000 just above it, an increase in council tax will invariably push more people into poverty or deeper into poverty."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "Council tax benefit spending doubled under Labour and welfare reform is a vital part of help to tackle the deficit that we inherited. The localisation of council tax benefit will give councils stronger incentives to cut fraud, promote local enterprise and get people back into work."
