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There are a lot of people on lower incomes than £12,000 a year. yet they still seem to manage to pay their bills.
Any publicly-elected Councillor should know better. They are the ones that set Council Tax. No sympathy, I'm afraid.

Are councilors allowed to claim housing and council tax benefit?

"Are councilors allowed to claim housing and council tax benefit?"




It appears they are allowed,P_Trembath.
Or at least they don't seem to appear on that DWP list of those that can't claim.

Whilst you state "The circumstamces of Alex Folkes and Andrew Wallis are different. They are both talented, hard-working, full time councillors who rely solely on their £12,000 per year allowance to support themselves." can you please clarify the situation with the £12,000 - do they pay income tax/NI which would reduce the annual figure to approx £10,522 (like ordinary mortals on £12k) or is it income tax/NI free which means they are both paid the equivalent of approx. £14,200 - if they do not pay NI who picks up the tab towards their state pension?

Presumably also, if the statement that they "rely solely on their £12,000 per year allowance to support themselves" it would mean that they do not receive housing and council tax benefit, or was that another politicians statement to be taken with a pinch of salt?

Answers please?

Regardless of the above - if Mr Folkes wishes to retain public trust, which is probably not possible now, he should not have got into this situation in the first place, as he should set an example to others.

Your statement "Otherwise membership of Cornwall Council will become a reserve for the retired and wealthy out of touch with what it's really like to survive on low pay as many people in Cornwall have to do." should be changed slightly now to "Currently some membership of Cornwall Council has become a reserve of people out of touch with what it's really like to survive on low pay as many people in Cornwall have to do."

To clarify a previous point, the allowance a Councillors receives is subject to Income Tax and National Insurance. It is not tax free.

To be accurate, Mr Folkes, in addition to his allowance of £12,128, also received £316 in subsistence allowance and £4,103 in travelling expenses from Cornwall Council between April 2010 and March 2011, making a total of £16,500. I guess that subsistence and travelling expenses are not taxable.

The comment by John Macloud "To be accurate, Mr Folkes, in addition to his allowance of £12,128, also received £316 in subsistence allowance and £4,103 in travelling expenses from Cornwall Council between April 2010 and March 2011, making a total of £16,500." means that the comment "....who rely solely on their £12,000 per year allowance to support themselves." is not exactly a true statement by Ann Kerridge, so what else are we not being told by our Councillors whilst we await an answer with regard to Housing and Council Tax Benefit?

Thanks to Andrew we now know that, like ordinary mortals, the Councillor Allowance is subject to Income Tax and NI. but it would be good to know the situation with regard to benefits.

Perhaps Graham Smith has the answer to these points and knows exactly what allowances, expenses and benefits are received and approx. what is left after Income tax/NI so we have a true picture of the situation ref. Mr Folkes.

Not that it gives him any excuse as a prominent local politician, who has now blotted his copybook and will no doubt find it comes back to haunt him come next election time.

As someone with an intimate knowledge of this story, the FOI's and the following coverage, The statement by Ann Kerridge that "I think Alex and Andrew deserve a little more sympathy than they are getting." is a little off the point.
Mr Wallis had the decency to come forward and be honest, despite there being no need for him to do so. He did it because he thought he should. The press coverage and the response from the public was broadly supportive and understanding, mainly because of this voluntary action.
On the other hand Mr Folkes hid behind "private" despite the genuine public interest due to the possibility of a criminal act if he had voted on council tax issues. Something he assures us he did not when effectivly barred due to non payment of council tax.
It finally took the journalist equivalent of a gun to his head, made possible by repeated FOI requests, conversations with HM Court Service, representations to a magistrate and a expensive and time consuming search through paper records.
He was also asked more than once directly and choose to say "No Comment"
This does not strike me as honesty for the sake of honesty.
Regarding the council tax and housing benefit etc, that will be an interesting bit of info. There is also another potential hole in the presented reasoning but you will have to wait and see if that can be "stood up"

John Macloud wrote:-
"To be accurate, Mr Folkes, in addition to his allowance of £12,128, also received £316 in subsistence allowance and £4,103 in travelling expenses from Cornwall Council between April 2010 and March 2011, making a total of £16,500. I guess that subsistence and travelling expenses are not taxable."

To be fair, both subsistence allowance, and Travel expenses, are remuneration for expenses incurred during and,presumably, because of his work as a councilor, and are, therefore, not in addition to his ordinary allowance.

This whole thing raises an important point.

What sort of councilor do we want to represent us?
A councilor who does his/her job properly, works considerably longer than the "normal" 40 hour week, is on call nearly all the time, and has to frequently choose "work" commitments over his/her ordinary family life. (Not many people would choose to take on such a commitment for a mere £12k per year.) Leaving aside Mr. Folkes, and his financial misdemeanors for the moment, the way things are going, we will be left in the position we were in 30 or more years ago, where the only people who can afford to stand for public office are those who have private means, are retired, or are not prepared to put the time and effort into the job that most of us would consider necessary these days. Is it time to consider paying our representatives a "living wage"?

Which, in itself, raises the question, what is a "living wage"?

That said, I do feel that Mr. Folkes, and all the other councilors who have been "tardy" with their council tax payments, should have come clean at the beginning, and owned up to having some form of financial difficulty, instead of seemingly hoping it will all blow over and be forgotten. Personally, I would rather have a bankrupt councilor who did his/her job well, who fought for the best interests of his/her constituents, than a financially secure one who didn't. Above all, I would prefer an open and honest one.