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Benefits Uprating

As the hon. Gentleman knows, there is no reason for any older person to end up in court because of council tax. The key thing is for people to take up council tax benefit if they are struggling to pay and, if I may say so, for councils to moderate their council tax increases. My local authority tries hard to make sure that council tax goes up less fast than inflation and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be pressing his to do the same thing, thanks to the above-inflation money that the Government have given local authorities over the past few years—in contrast to his Government—and the extra money for schools announced in the Chancellor’s statement yesterday.