Lib Dems demand £200 Council Tax refund

7.30.46pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 19th Oct 2005

Lib Dems want a fair deal on Council Tax rebate

40,000 HAMPSHIRE WOMEN WILL MISS OUT

Hampshire Liberal Democrats are demanding the Government pays the one-off £200 Council Tax refund to all pensioners and to stop discriminating against women aged 60-64.

The Government is insulting the 40,000 women in Hampshire aged 60 to 64. They are denying them the £200 Council Tax refund on the grounds that they have retired inappropriately early.

We are launching a petition which we hope to deliver to the Prime Minister later this year. To sign the petition just click on the link below.

Notes:

The £200 Council Tax refund, announced by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor in the run up to the General Election in May, is being restricted to those aged 65 and over. This means that women aged 60-64, despite having passed the state pension age will be unable to receive the help with their Council Tax bills.

Government Ministers have justified this exclusion on the grounds that 65 "is the age that the Government considers to be the appropriate age for retirement." And yet the state pension age for women is currently 60.

If the age bar were lowered to 60, 39,550 women and 38,468 men in Hampshire (including Southampton and Portsmouth) would also benefit.

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Sign the petition.