State pensioners worried about losing their 25 percent council tax discount this winter on top of their £300 Winter Fuel Payment have been issued an update from the Prime Minister.
Speculation has been mounting that the government may look at scrapping the single person council tax discount, which is used by millions of pensioners who live alone to take money off their council tax bills.
The average Band D council tax bill is £1,576 in England, which means pensioners save £394 with the 25 percent single person tax discount.
Keir Starmer has now spoken about the speculation after Labour ministers previously refused to deny that the government could remove the discount as part of its upcoming Budget on October 30.
Asked about the single person council tax discount, Keir Starmer told BBC West: “I am really concerned about this and obviously I’m not going to pre-empt the Budget, but I don’t want to risk putting the fear of God into people.
“I don’t want to get into this, you know, ‘Will you rule out? Will you rule out? Will you rule out?’ because it just puts fear into people and I don’t want to do that.
“What I will say is that I’m very conscious of how hard it’s been for people and we intend to make sure that we have those people who have faced the greatest hardship in our minds’ eyes when we take our decisions.”
But he did hint that the Budget could include action to “fix” council finances, including by giving local authorities longer-term funding arrangements, as council leaders warned Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner that they faced financial collapse.
It comes after the government already decided to remove the automatic £300 Winter Fuel Payment for state pensioners and make it means tested for those on pension credit, while free bus passes and free presciptions have also been mooted for potential cuts.
