Rising Court Costs

The Ministry of Justice has issued The Magistrates’ Courts Fees (Amendment) Order 2009 SI 1496/2009. It is effective from 13th July 2009.

The previous Consultation paper on Civil Court Fees was proposing to increase the committal fees for committal proceedings in respect of Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates.

The proposed change was to charge a one-off fee of £250.00 for any combination of the following stages; making a committal complaint or application, the issue of a committal summons, a commitment hearing and a committal order. This has been reduced to £240 in the Regulations, and, presently excludes NDR, although this is believed to be an error which will be corrected.



They have also added a fee of £75 for the issue of an Arrest Warrant, where it is requested by the Billing Authority, bringing the total that the Court can charge the billing Authority to £315 for commencing the committal process.

The Child Poverty Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 11 June 2009. The Bill is jointly sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Work and Pensions and Her Majesty's Treasury.

The Child Poverty Bill enshrines in legislation the commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020. It defines success in eradicating child poverty and establishes an accountability framework to drive progress towards the 2020 goal at national and local level

This is the Treasury Select Committee comment on the budget changes for LHA for the full report

Hitherto, those claiming the Local Housing Allowance had an incentive to seek competitively priced accommodation in order to maximise their benefit. Such an incentive will disappear in April 2010 which will cause problems for some. We recognise the prevailing economic pressures on the Government but recommend that more thought be given to creating a more stable framework for the payment of this benefit.

We are delighted to be able to release the fully updated CIPFA Benefits and Revenues Services Guide to the HB/CTB subsidy Claim 2008/2009 written by Sheldon Wood

This comprehenisve document is written in 6 parts and over 112 pages covers all you and your staff will need to know about subsidy.

About this document

This publication describes in detail, the arrangements for completion, submission and audit of English and Welsh LA’s Housing and Council Tax Benefit subsidy claim using subsidy claim form MPF720A & C. It has been fully updated for the claims for subsidy in respect of financial year 2009/10 and includes an additional chapter at Part 5, outlining the arrangements undertaken by the Audit Commission in the audit and certification of the LA’s subsidy claim form

Avaliable free to Subscribers from events documentation

Urgent News for Revenues

Chancellor of the Exchequer Statement - Business Rates Information Letter (BRIL) 7/2009

You will need to arrange for a copy of the flyer attached to the BRIL to be sent to all of your NDR payers within seven days of today.