Oral Answers to Questions

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

11. When he expects to announce the allocation of the transitional council tax grant to local authorities.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

17. When he expects to announce the allocation of the transitional council tax grant to local authorities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)]

The Government published on 18 October the grant allocations that local authorities will be able to claim if they comply with the terms of the transitional scheme. These are available on the departmental website. The deadline for claiming the grant is 15 February, and payments will be made by the end of March 2013.

--- Later in debate ---

[Brandon Lewis]

Under the previous Government, the council tax benefit bill went from £2 billion to almost £4.5 billion. It is right that this Government are dealing with the deficit that the previous Government left us and sorting out the economic problem. We are letting local authorities deal with what they need to do locally, and we have put in place £100 million to protect the most vulnerable, whom councils such as the hon. Lady’s unfortunately seem to want to hit.

[Yvonne Fovargue]

Wigan is consulting on a number of proposals, all of which, by necessity, will hit the working poor, people with disabilities, or families with young children. Does the Minister believe that forcing councils such as Wigan to chase people in those vulnerable groups for money that they simply do not have is either fair or a good use of council tax payers’ money?

[Brandon Lewis]

Again, I hope that the hon. Lady’s authority will do what it is supposed to do and look after the most vulnerable. Instead of attacking the most vulnerable, it should be dealing with its back-office costs, cutting down on fraud and error worth £200 million last year alone, and taking advantage of this Government’s scheme to help the most vulnerable, while still bringing down the benefits bill, which the last Government sent from £2 billion to nearly £4.5 billion.