Happy New Year! I truly hope 2021 turns out to be a better year for us all.
This week, Church Action for Tax Justice is launching its Fair Tax Now campaign.
This campaign is focussed on telling the stories of individuals who are at the sharp end of tax injustice. Oftentimes, campaigning for tax justice can get tied up in statistics when what matters are the real people, the real lives behind those statistics.
Therefore, this week, we want to draw attention to Andy’s story. Andy and his wife, Sarah, are in a better place now, but some years ago Andy was on minimum wage and his wife could not work. They struggled financially and ended up with significant Council Tax arrears. One day, a bailiff appeared at their door wanting to assess all they had with a view to repossession.
What makes this so unjust is that, at the time, Andy and Sarah were paying about 10% of their income in Council Tax, while the richest in our society pay just 1% of their income in Council Tax.
It is no wonder that Citizens Advice have said that Council Tax is the most common debt problem in the UK.
As part of our Fair Tax Now campaign, we are therefore calling for a fairer Council Tax system, one that doesn’t penalise families like Andy and Sarah.
We would love it if you would take part in the campaign by emailing your MP. There is nothing inevitable about Council Tax rates. Together, we can bring pressure for change. We have created a very easy to use template letter on our website where you just enter your postcode and click send. You can find all of this by clicking here.
Thanks so much for helping us in the fight for tax justice
Every blessing
Justin
PS As part of our campaign, we are changing our monthly newsletter so that it comes in this much shorter format each week instead of the longer format each month. We hope that’s OK. If you want to unsubscribe you can do at any time. If this is the first email you’ve received for a while check your junk for our previous emails
