Seven ways your council is ripping you off

could list 100 truly outrageous things that councils do - and don't do - but have stuck with seven deadly sins for now. You may want to have a pillow to hand so you can punch it while you're reading this..... 1. They're plundering the staff pension schemes you have funded. We know they're short of cash because they invested far too much in Icelandic accounts and will only get some of it back. Some town halls have black holes of around £50m. Meanwhile, councils are free to borrow hundreds of millions from staff pensions schemes to boost their bank balances. I struggle to understand why this practice - favoured by Robert Maxwell - is not banned in the public sector as it is in the private sector. Most of the schemes are in deficit anyway, so withdrawing funds will make things worse. This behaviour is even more incredible when you consider that a quarter of the council tax we pay goes to fund the pensions in the first place. 2. They will increase your bill to cover their losses but services won't get better. We're all due for council tax rises in the Spring. Some reports put the average bill next year at the £1,500 mark. But you can safely assume that the services provided by your council will not increase or improve in line with the bill rises. You can also expect that anything which currently generates revenue will cost more. For instance local parking costs and permits - which currently bring in £1.5billion in total for councils - will go up. 3. They go on unnecessary foreign trips at your expense. Even if I thought about it really hard, I don't think I could come up with a reasonable need for a local councillor to visit New York, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Cannes, Hong Kong, Morocco, Germany, Venice, Rome, Nashville, Toronto or Chicago. But nearly 150 councils sent staff to these places recently. My favourite has to be Birmingham city council which spent £6,600 sending three staff to a conference in Chicago with the aim of raising Birmingham's profile as 'a city of haute cuisine'. The same council sent two officers to Jamaica to monitor the progress of school pupils in areas blighted by gun and gang crime, spent £3,600 studying 'outdoor leisure' in Danish nursery schools and playgrounds, and paid £5,200 to send three officers to Reggio Emilia, in Italy, to study "the distinctive Reggio approach to early childhood development". Northern Ireland's Antrim Council also spent £6,000 sending someone to enjoy the Olympics in Beijing 'as preparation for the 2012 games'. 4. Lots of your cash is being spent on council publicity. The total council publicity bill across Britain is almost £430million a year according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance.The bill has doubled since 1997. Yes public services need some publicity but for £430million they must be getting clinic and library notices etched into gold bars. 5. Council workers take twice as much time off sick as those in private sector. The 'sick note' culture in the public sector is costing taxpayers £4billion a year according to a study by Benenden Healthcare Society, which provides healthcare to council workers, and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives. On average local authority employees take 13.5 sick days each year, compared with 7.9 days in the private sector. It found that sickness absence could easily be cut by 20%, saving £800million a year of public money if councils did more to tackle rampant absenteeism. 6. Council tax for English residents rising twice as fast as those in Scotland. Figures from Whitehall and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability reveal that the average household in England will pay a massive £688-a-year more from next month than when Labour came to power in 1997, yet the rise north of the border has been just £366. Earlier this year Gordon Brown is said to have ordered a review of the Barnett forumla which acts as a subsidy. Many believe it was only ever designed to be a temporary measure and has been left in place far too long. 7. If you're paying too much they won't tell you. At least 700,000 households are thought to be paying more than they need to, but you have to check for errors yourself. I urge you to challenge the valuation band on your property. The simplest way is to talk to your neighbours. You can check your banding on the website of the Valuation Office Agency. If you're in Scotland it's the Scottish Assessors' Association site. Find the bands of properties that share your postcode and look for properties in a lower band. Don't forget that if you get really unlucky, you may find that your band is pushed up. But it's well worth checking. And don't forget to claim the 25% discount if you live alone. Of course you can also write to your council and ask them to review your band. If they respond favourably then make sure you are refunded for the whole time you were overcharged.(my view)-ACT NOW AND STOP THEM FROM RIPPING YOU OFF!