Council tax rise puts the cash strapped under considerable strain

A recently published figure on uncollected revenue was stated as being £2.8 billion in England alone, a rise of £0.4 billion from the £2.4 billion as reported in the national press, Thursday, April 23 2013.

Across Sussex £62 million was stated as owing in unpaid tax, Mid Sussex Reader, August 13 2015, and may have increased in the interim period.

If this tax increases in future years at a similar rate to this year’s increase, how long will it be before many more households will struggle to meet their obligatory contributions? With pleas for more financial support and investment from so many quarters, every penny of every tax has to be accounted for in order to finance the elusive, fair, transparent society espoused by politicians as their goal.

Should any official inquiry investigate as to why the debt is as large and finds that it is due to inability to pay, there is, surely, a major problem in the manner in which a country, supposedly among the upper echelons of wealthy nations, handles the distributions of this wealth.

Those of us who, thus far, can cope with such an increase, would do well to be mindful of the plight of those less able to do so for, as an ancient maxim advises, ‘hodie mihi, cras tibi’.

Roger Heath

Western Road

Newick