Just when you thought that this country could not get any
more hateful towards singletons, the Labour Party comes out and suggests that
they should be paying more council tax.
Just in case you don’t already know, single occupants currently enjoy a
25% discount on their council tax, which may sound like a lot (especially given
the fact that local councils are feeling the pinch due to cuts that have been
imposed by Westminster). However, you
need to remember that single people won’t produce as much waste as couples or
families. They probably won’t use
schools (well, unless they are a single parent family) and, above all else,
they get sidelined by policy makers and think tanks alike.
Despite the fact that single occupant households now make up
29% of total households in the UK, singletons are repeatedly ignored when it
comes to designing services or offering financial help, with the majority of
financial help being offered to families and pensioners. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating
leaving children to starve or pensioners to die of hypothermia. I’m not totally heartless. However, I do feel that more could be done to
help those who are trying to survive on one (often moderate) income.
I’m not entirely sure why this inequality exists. I certainly think that as a county we are so
family centric that we fail to understand that there are those who live alone,
be it through choice or through circumstance.
We are socially conditioned to believe that in order for an individual
to function socially, they must be part of a family. Preferably that family will be a loving,
nurturing one in which every individual is loved and supported and whilst
society acknowledges that this model does not always work out at times, we
still champion the family as the basis of a functional society. After all, a society is made up of
individuals and so healthy individuals make a healthy society. Thus, it seems to be a commonly held belief
that even the most dysfunctional family is better than no family at all. That a person who lives alone is in some way
sad and deficient. It is also a
challenge to what society deems as being normal.
Or perhaps it is purely because nobody stays single forever,
right? After all, everyone so wants to
meet the perfect partner, get married/ have a civil partnership, buy a house in
the suburbs with a double garage and neatly manicured lawn, have or adopt lots
of kids and continue their onward march towards middle-age and an ever expanding
waste line. When you think about it like
that, who the hell would ever choose to remain single? No, singleness is a stop-gap. A transition period between the not so
perfect partner and the partner to whom you will eventually surrender your
sense of self and independence. You don’t
actually think anyone believes it when you say that you really enjoy your own
company and could never imagine having to share your space with another person,
do you? Thus, if singleness is “just a
phase” and one that most of us, at some stage or other, are to grow out of,
then why should the government and the rest of society make exceptions and
provisions for it?
Maybe because we live in a country that claims to respect
individual life choices and because we need to stop being so darnright
patronising. Just because somebody does
not want to waste their Sundays in B&Q or running around after smaller
versions of themselves; it does not make them non existent. It also doesn’t mean that they don’t need
help. Things like fuel bills,
rent/mortgage payments and insurance all have to be paid. Many of these costs are ever increasing and
would cost as much for one person as they would for three. OK, so maybe if you’re on your own then you
could get away with smaller house, which would cost you less in terms of rent/
mortgage payments but still....
Then there’s the fact that married couples get tax
breaks. Why? Apart from conforming to the whims of
society, I really don’t see why a piece of paper should automatically mean that
you qualify for tax breaks, especially if you have two incomes. It’s simple really, the more your household
earns, the greater your tax bill should be.
No ifs. No buts. Relationship status should not come into
it. Single people who live alone and
earn less than married or cohabiting couples should not have to surrender their
council tax discount. Likewise, married
couples should not get preferential treatment.
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