A disabled woman who cannot afford to eat some days has been summoned to court after her council tax benefit was slashed.
Diane Quinn, 46, spoke of her hardship after we revealed how thousands of people on low incomes are facing prosecution in an attack on Britain’s most vulnerable and poor people.
The mum-of-four, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, has been slapped with a £189 council tax bill having previously been exempt.
Diane, who can only walk with a stick, had already been hit by benefit cuts when her £132-a-fortnight employment and support allowance was axed after Government-appointed assessors declared her fit to work.
Diane is one of up to 1.9 million people with demands for council tax after their benefit was scrapped and the number of people in council tax arrears has rocketed by 72 per cent in some parts of the country.
Diane, of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, can’t afford to eat every day and four days a week makes an hour-long round trip on four buses to her mother Grace, 72, for a hot meal.
Diane, who is waiting for a double knee replacement and has tendonitis in her feet, breathing problems and a damaged spinal cord, said: “I have to keep coming to mum saying, ‘Have you got food?’ I hate asking her.”
Her monthly utility bills are £70 and she was struggling with debt before she got the tax bill.
Diane lost six stone, going from a size 30 to a size 22, for her health and to help her find a job.
Her debts are a £350 loan to buy clothes that fit and £120 to have her dog put down plus £1,100 in vet’s fees.
Diane gets jobseeker’s allowance of £71.70 a week and disability living allowance of £305 a month but fears that will be cut too.
She pays £150 a month rent for her two-bedroom bungalow and said she was affected by an early version of the bedroom tax when she moved in last June as there were no one-bedroom homes.
Diane is often joined at her mother’s home by jobless son Grant, 26, who faces his own £219 council tax bill and has debts of £2,000.
Diane said: “I’ve got to rob Peter to pay Paul to make sure the council get their money because they say their debt is the most important thing.”
Conservative-led Milton Keynes Council said: “We have set aside more than £1million to help residents. We have written to everyone potentially affected and have a helpline and website for those seeking support.”
New figures show 1.48 million people are in arrears across England – 45 per cent more than last year.
Mum-of-three Amanda Kitney was one of thousands of residents facing demands in court last week for failing to pay her council tax.
Her local authority, Medway, in Kent, has 3,319 summonses outstanding for failure to pay the charge.
Amanda, 38, a housing association tenant, owes £342, including £80 costs.
She blasted welfare cuts saying: “It’s disgusting. I voted Conservative and regret it. What do they expecting me to live on?”
Amanda, who has fibromyalgia, gets £147 a month DLA and pays £40 a month for a course.
Grandfather and ex-soldier Sean McHugo, 66, of Gillingham, faces a £486.83 bill.
Arthritis-sufferer Sean, who was a cleaner, gets a pension of £110 a week, but has to pay £110 a week in rent.
He said: “I used to live quite comfortably when I was working but there’s no way I can afford to pay this amount in full now.
"I couldn’t hold the Government in more contempt than I do.”
Another reader, wheelchair-bound dad-of-four Glen Miller, 50, was taken to Scarborough Magistrates’ Court over a £164 bill.
Fibromyalgia sufferer Glen, a lorry driver, said the bedroom tax costs him £25 a week, and now he faces the council tax bill for his three-bedroom housing association home in Humanby, North Yorkshire.
Glen gets £95 a week in employment and support allowance, while his wife receives a carer’s allowance of £94 a week. They pay £90 a week in rent.
Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said: “Under the last Government, council tax more than doubled costing every household £180 a year.
The Coalition has cut council tax in real terms, and is supporting a five-year council tax freeze.”
Shadow Local Government Secretary Hilary Benn said: “To put this extra burden on people on the lowest incomes at the same time as millionaires are enjoying a tax cut is simply unfair.”
Have you been taken to court over council tax? Call us free on 0800 289 441 or email scoops@sundaymirror.co.uk