Low-income families in Britain are to lose hundreds of pounds a year as the coalition government plans to cut council tax benefit payments to save £500 million a year.
Almost six million people in Britain have all their council tax paid or are granted some money to pay their council tax. However, from April, the coalition government will cut the amount of money given to town halls to redistribute in the form of council tax benefit by 10 percent, reported the Independent.
The coalition government launched its austerity program of spending cuts and tax rises in 2010, shortly after it took office.
The goal of Britain’s austerity program was to eliminate the country’s record peacetime structural budget deficit by 2015. However, a recent report published by Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility last month said the country’s austerity program could be in place for the next fifty years.
Despite calls from business leaders and economic experts in the UK, the coalition government has so far refused to ease its tough plan of spending cuts and tax hikes.
The widespread cuts to the council tax benefit are to fall heavily on the unemployed and those in low-paid jobs.
After two consecutive quarters of economic contraction during the last three months of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, British economic experts have now warned of a triple-dip recession awaiting the British economy as they have called on the government and Chancellor George Osborne to change their economic policies.
