The POLL TAX is back from the dead – it's Cameron localism

 By Polly Toynbee

Here's the background: on average, households pay £1,000 a year in council tax. Until now, households on low incomes were exempt or paid only according to their means, so 5.9m households received council tax benefit. 

From next April, the benefit is cut by 10%, which is bad enough; but then insanity takes over.

Each local authority will be given the sum that was handed out in benefit in their area (less 10%) to disperse as they please.

They must keep paying the full benefit to pensioners and "the vulnerable". Each council must choose who is "vulnerable", as the government refuses to provide its own definition.

Half of the recipients are pensioners, so protecting them means all other low-income households bear the whole cut, averaging 20%.

People who live in areas with a lot of pensioners or a lot of the "vulnerable" will suffer the biggest cuts, as much as 30% or more. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says low-income households in Haringey, north London, lose £38 a year.

300 councils must each devise their own criteria. 

Each becomes a mini DWP, establishing its own means test without having access to people's earnings. Each must divide its benefit pot between varying numbers of claimants each year. 

Miserly authorities can keep much of it for other purposes. 

Each decides who is "vulnerable" or whether to include disability living allowance, child benefit or personal savings in declaring who is eligible for how much.