East Riding Labour Group
East Riding Labour Group reacted angrily today at the full East Riding of Yorkshire Council
meeting in Beverley when their calls to protect low paid workers in the
East Riding boundary from proposed reduction in council tax benefit that will
hit 11,525 low paid households within the county.
This is following central government cuts to the ER of £2.6m. The Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Pat
O’Neil, Goole South Ward moved the Motion calling upon the Council to follow
the example of Tory Councils in the Prime Ministers constituency and find the
necessary savings from the council budget.
In seconding the Labour Motion the Lab Group’s Deputy
Leader, Cllr Keith Moore, Goole North said “These proposals are designed to hit
yet again those low paid workers who are in pay freezes and are on such low pay
they rely on these benefits for a living wage.
Cllr Pat O’Neil added “the social injustice of this policy
will be all the greater as on the same day the top rate of tax for high earners
will be cut from 50p to 45p which equates to a tax break of £40,000 a year for
this and future years.
The cost and inconvenience of collecting small sums from
those without the ability to pay is likely to make the whole thing unworkable.
And many of those households effected are in the wards of Tory councillors and
in the most deprived wards in the East Riding.
The Labour Group stood alone in the defence of low paid
workers within this Authority’s boundary receiving no support from any other
group.
3 October 2012
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