A man says he would "rather go to prison" than pay his council tax bill after he ended up paying "much more" in council tax than he did before he took out his pension. Stephen Matthews, of Retford, said he has paid his entire pension back to the council" and feels "let down by everyone".
The 59-year-old cares for his disabled wife, Julie, and receives Carer's Allowance in addition to income-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Mr Matthews said that he was misinformed when he took his pension out as a tax-free lump sum of £15,500, as he was told that anything under £16,000 would not affect the benefits he received, reports Lincolnshire Live.
He said: "They said that for anything over £6,000, I would pay a pound per £100 over. But that worked out at a reduction of £20 in my ESA, which I said was acceptable as it meant I would be £2,000 a year better off.
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"They're taking my life away from me, so I might as well withdraw from society." The benefits Mr Matthews was receiving changed "without him knowing" and he said the council cited changed legislation reason for this.
The former paper mill worker added: "If I went to a shop and I bought something before the price went up, they wouldn't be able to tell me I owe them money because it now costs more." A spokesman for Bassetlaw District Council said that the council's tax reduction scheme for people of working age was "income banded".
He said: "This means that income for working-age claimants affects the entitlement to council tax reduction, although we do disregard certain benefits such as Personal Independent Payments, Disability Living Allowance, War Pensions etc." Income bands can range from a weekly income of £83.72 to £187.66, with a 65 percent discount on council tax, to a weekly income of between £248.83 and £340.06, with a 25 percent discount.
The spokesman added: "In cases where a claimant's income changes, the council tax reduction discount will be recalculated in line with the scheme's income bands." But the "complicated" system has left Mr Matthews feeling a bit trapped.
He said: "If you have £1,000 saved up in the bank, you have to declare it and then you'll lose however much of your benefits. That means I can't even go on holiday.
"A decent holiday will cost £2,000 for me and Julie, but, if I save up £2,000, I'll have to pay it all back in tax. They either need to bring the cost of holidays down or put the threshold up to, say, £5,000 so you can actually afford to do things."
Mr Matthews wants to see the legislation changed to make it "fairer". He wants to launch a petition to the Government to see the changes made and to better reflect the "reality" that people in his situation face.
He said: "People who are carers, people who take their pensions out early, they're all getting penalised for this money. They're saying they won't put my council tax rate back to what it was because of the legislation, but I'm saying that's wrong.
"Disability Living Allowance isn't means-tested, so Carer's Allowance shouldn't be. If it wasn't for those carers doing that job, they would have to pay a professional carer a lot more than £69 a week. The carer is saving the Government money. It's a very complicated system, but it's all wrong - and it needs to be seriously looked at."
He added: "I wouldn't know how to start or how to get the ball rolling, but I need to write it up so people can read it and decide if it's a fair system."
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