Resisting council tax benefit cuts

The latter will be administered by local authorities and the government has cut the amount of money available by 10 per cent.

Approximately half of council tax support recipients will be pensioners, and as this group will be exempt from the cut, the cash available to those on working-age benefits has actually been reduced by roughly 20 per cent.

Those without jobs with the misfortune to live in new Labour-controlled Harlow will be obliged to pay 24 per cent of our council tax bills.

For a single person on jobseeker's allowance this amounts to approximately 6 per cent or 7 per cent of their disposable income.

The neighbouring Conservative-run councils of Epping Forest and Broxbourne are each charging 20 per cent.

Harlow Council Tax Benefit Rebels is a group of jobless people who refuse to pay any council tax. We will ignore Harlow Council's demands when they come through our letterboxes. We say: "Can't pay? Don't pay!"

Harlow Council is expecting that 84 per cent of those affected by this cut will refuse to pay, and it has admitted that it is not worth councils taking court action to recover relatively small amounts.

Our website can be found at: www.benefitrebels.blogspot.co.uk. We believe that if enough people refuse to pay we can force a change in Harlow Council policy.

We intend to join with similar groups elsewhere to force central government to reverse this cut.

Wat Tyler

Harlow Council Tax Benefit Rebels