§ Mr. Alan CampbellTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister which local authorities take into account war pensions when assessing council tax. [131317]
§ Mr. PondI have been asked to reply.
A statutory disregard of £10 is applied to War Disablement Pensions and War Widows Pensions when calculating entitlement to income-related benefits. In the case of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, local authorities have the discretion to apply a further disregard up to the full amount of any War Pension in payment.
At April 2003, 392 local authorities disregarded War Pensions in full and two authorities, Middlesbrough and Bolton, applied a full disregard to War Pensions but not 723W War Widows' Pensions. A further 12 authorities applied a disregard in excess of the statutory £10. They are, as follows: Barrow; Chester-le-Street; Gateshead; Newcastle; North Tyneside; Preston; Salford; South Tyneside; Sunderland; Surrey Heath; Tynedale; and Weymouth and Portland. The remaining two authorities, Easington and Wear Valley, applied the statutory disregard only.
This answer corrects the information given in the reply to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) on 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 513W.
Source:
Ministry of Defence Veterans' Task Force from information supplied by the Royal British Legion.