State pensioners issued NEW update over £542 council tax rise under Labour

Prime Minister Starmer repeatedly said he did not want to ‘get ahead of the Budget’, due to be revealed on October 30.

State pensioners have been handed a new update from Sir Keir Starmer over the possibility of scrapping the 25 per cent discount for single households who pay council tax. Labour Party government Prime Minister Starmer repeatedly said he did not want to ‘get ahead of the Budget’, due to be revealed on October 30.

Asked about the single person council tax discount, which gives people living alone 25 per cent off their council tax bill, he told BBC West: "I am really concerned about this and obviously I’m not going to pre-empt the Budget, but I don’t want to risk putting the fear of God into people."

Amid fears of a £542 council tax hike if the average band D property 25 per cent rate off £2171 is axed, Sir Keir added: "I don’t want to get into this, you know, ’Will you rule out? Will you rule out? Will you rule out?’ because it just puts fear into people and I don’t want to do that. What I will say is that I’m very conscious of how hard it’s been for people and we intend to make sure that we have those people who have faced the greatest hardship in our minds’ eyes when we take our decisions."

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He told ITV West Country: "I can assure farmers that we are listening good and hard to what they said to us before the election and we are absolutely determined that we will deliver on our mandate for change." But he did hint that the Budget could include action to ‘fix’ council finances.

This includes by giving local authorities longer-term funding arrangements, as council leaders warned Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner that they faced financial collapse. Graham Stuart said: “Following Angela Rayner’s pledge not to increase Council Tax, I was surprised and disappointed that she didn’t take the opportunity to guarantee the Single Person Discount would continue.

“I know the government has made it clear that it would support working people, but it’s surprising that it refused to rule out hiking council tax by around £400 a year for people living alone. Some pensioners living alone could be around £700 worse off when combined with the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment – and we’re only two months into this government.

“It’s not fair – and I’ll do all I can to make your views heard.”