Clare County Council has decided to leave the processing of
the grant applications from those households that have not paid the charge
until all applicants from households where the charge has been paid have been
processed. The fear is that the council
may adopt a whenever approach. Perhaps in the short term that might lever some
money out of some people, but in my mind
its noe clear to me that the council are on firm ground despite the political support
they’ve received.
On the face of it if an applicant is a property owner and
hasn’t paid the household charge then it would be tempting to suggest that the
council should simply deduct the €100 from the grant. So, why not? Well this is where it gets
interesting.
My own county council’s
website carries a data protection statement saying that information given by
applicants for education grants will be used solely to make contact about your
student grant. I don’t think that any local
authority can use the information that an applicant has given for the purpose
of an educational grant in relation to an outstanding charge. I think any county council hoping to
pressurise students families to pay the household charge could possibly come
out the wrong side of a judgement by the data protection commissioner if they
are brave enough to stick their necks out on this one.
There’s more. The application form asks for relevant
financial information for the previous tax year to the application being lodged
and not the current tax year. The household charge which I was happy to pay on
time is a charge due in the present year.
So perhaps 2013 may be the earliest when a council form can oblige
families to set out their position on the tax.
There’s one more thing that sticks out. In Wexford the
applicant countersigns with their parents.
Our form presumes that all live at the one address. What if they don’t?
What if one parent lives apart from the applicant and has paid the household
charge and the applicant and the other parent hasn’t? Has the applicant any
responsibility to pay especially if they’re under 18? If the applicant has an
independent income that is part of the assessment surely fairness would suggest
that the most the council could deduct would be the proportionate fraction of
the parent’s income from the total income as set out in all P60’s?
What about other council services? Will the fire service,
cemetery charge be linked to payment of household charges? What might have been
a simple solution to a simple problem in Clare might well take off in a
direction that was never intended.
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