Revd Paul Nicolson's Council Tax case vs LB Haringey adjourned till Weds 4 August 2016 — photo gallery

Revd Paul Nicolson's Council Tax case against LB Haringey over their taxing of already inadequate state benefits through unfair levying of Council Tax on the poorest has been deferred until 4 August.

Three Kwuggies (Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members) attended Tottenham Magistrates Court in support of Revd Paul Nicolson today along with a host of other supporters. Together with the 'Refusenik Reverend' we formed an unorthodox angel host. 

1. Kwuggies find Revd Paul Nicolson tweeting at the bus stop

2. Revd Paul — pausing from tweeting — joins us at Kwugging.
"He's a double sided natural," says our Kim

Tottenham Magistrates Court, by contrast, did not prove to be such a great enough host to welcome as many as half those present to the proceedings in the Court Room, or to have a coffee vending machine working — though radiators blasted out hot air to add to global warming. Lack of refreshments though was not the reason that the case was adjourned till 4 August, but Revd Paul announced to all who had not heard today's court proceedings and to those who had, what the situation was.(1)

3. Taxpayers Against Poverty: Benefit levels are too low
to tax

He also produced a pack of A5 double-sided leaflets for the prelude where we assembled at a bus shelter outside on what turned out to be a fine day. We also distributed 10 KUWG leaflets in which we shared the billing with Unite Community who generously printed the leaflets for us on fine quality, pretty weather resistant paper.

4. Revd Paul Nicolson's supporters starting to assemble for a photo call
at the bus stop

5. The Court officials had told us that no photographs
were to be taken on the grass in front of the Court House

6. We gradually got a little more organised in our assemblage

7: Another photographer intervenes

Those present of Dude Swheatie's acquaintance or otherwise identifiable among the score or so supporters present included:

• Claire Glasman from WinVisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities),(2) 
• Gill Thompson whose brother David Clapson was 'sanctioned to death'(3)
• Haringey Unite Community and Haringey Green Party member Gordon Peters and friend
• a local housing justice and anti-gentrification campaigner; 
• a Socialist Worker distributor; and
• Revd Paul Nicolson's son — who helped find Dude Swheatie's hat when it was mislaid

8. Revd Paul conferring with Claire Glasman of WinVisible
who had supplied the hand-scribed placards

He had said to his supporters at the outset today that his great inspiration for the day as he was heading out alone was a newspaper photo of an elderly lady in Paris standing up to paramilitary police and in defiance of viciously anti-trade union laws. He said that that sort of thing is where this country seems to be headed.

One of my KUWG comrades observed to me that she was really surprised at the declaration on the A5 leaflet that a proper diet should require about £43 per week — not something that those who set benefit levels seem to acknowledge, while benefit claimants become inured to insufficient nutrition.

We concluded as we waited outside the Court Room, regarding the legal hoops and hurdles he has gone through in search of economic justice, that Revd Paul Nicolson's motto is more, "Never attend anywhere official alone," than, "Anything for a quiet life."

Technical note about the taking of the photos

As stated in caption 5, the Court officials had given the instruction that no photos were to be taken of us on the grass in front of the Court House. Thus for photos 1 and 2, the taking of the photos was subject to the vagaries of a very narrow pavement as outside Kilburn Jobcentre where we do manage to get the building's branding in the background. 

The real stunt people at a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group action are generally the persons taking the photos at the risk of being knocked down by oncoming traffic; but Dude Swheatie extracted the face of Revd Paul's A5 leaflet as a 'selection' from photo 2 and reduced the 'noise' in that image to make the writing appear less jagged and much clearer. (That was achieved with the aid of Serif PhotoPlus X4 photo editing software for Windows.(4) PhotoPlus X4 was also used to apply a 'diffuse glow' to the image of Revd Paul in photos 1 and 2.) 

Photo 1 was taken by CJ, photos 2 to 8 by Kim, and photo 9 by Revd Paul Nicolson.

9. When we did find coffee in Tottenham, it was not at
the Magistrates Court!

Links

1. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/media-release-from-revd-paul-nicolson-vs-haringey-grant-thornton-tottenham-magistrates-court.html
2. http://www.winvisible.org
3. https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/david-clapson/
4. PhotoPlus X4 has since been superceded by PhotoPlus X8 http://www.serif.com/photoplus/

Join 'refusenik' Revd Paul Nicolson at Tottenham Magistrates Court, Wed 15 June at 10am for economic justice

As previously announced on this blog, KUWG will be backing Revd Paul Nicolson when he appears at 

Tottenham Magistrates CourtThe Court HouseLordship LaneTottenhamLondon N17 6RT (Location map: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=533569&y=190573&z=0&sv=N17+6RT&st=2&pc=N17+6RT&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf)

on Wednesday 15 June 2016 (tomorrow!) at 10am. [The previous announcements on this blog:

1. Support Revd Paul Nicolson at Tottenham Magistrates Court, Weds 15 June at 10am(1) 
2. Placards in support of Revd Paul Nicolson's Council Tax defiance against LB Haringey(2)
3. Media notice re Revd Paul Nicolson's defiance of illegitimate Council Tax levying(3)

]

This is alongside others supporting his aims of social and economic justice. The weather prospects for the day may not be brilliant for a demonstration outside the Court House, but that may be all the more reason for those in support of the 'Refusenik Revd' to enter the court — peacefully, of course. Just think of the impact that that may have in terms of 'justice being done — or not, as the case may be — and the fact that there will be witnesses present to what happens in that magistrates court. KUWG's branding 'strap line' or 'golden rule' is, "Never attend anywhere official alone," and officialdom regards the people facing them differently when the accompaniers really attend the building rather than just leave the person called before offialdom after helping them to arrive at the building.

(Compare this with U. Glasgow Law Professor Dr David Webster's observations regarding how benefit sanctions are applied as 'Britain's secret secret penal system'.(4))

Two members of the KUWG have committed themselves to attending physically in support of the 'Refusenik Revd'. Other 'Kwuggies' will be 'with him in spirit' as they take part in the direct action of helping people with their cases, some of which involve contesting the 'secret penal system' that is the application of benefit sanctions by bureaucrats who — as the U. Glasgow law professor has pointed out — have never faced the people sentenced to devastating loss of basic income.

As an ending note to this blog post, demonstrations can be great networking opportunities — though talking between members of the public inside the Court Room while the Court is in session is likely to be pounced upon heavily! It is also cogent to mention that at this time of writing, Revd Paul Nicolson's 2014 article What councils don't tell you about the enforcement of Council Tax has, to date, attracted 437 viewings to this blog, making it the 5th all time 'biggest hit' on the Kilburn Unemployed blog.(5)

Blog Post Links

1. Sorry for earlier typo in the post address!: http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/support-revd-paul-nicolson-at-tottenham-magistrates-court-weds-1-jun-at-10am.html
2. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/placards-in-support-of-revd-paul.html
3. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/media-notice-re-revd-paul-nicolsons-defiance-of-illegitimate-council-tax-levying.html
4. https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/benefit-sanctions-britains-secret-penal-system
5. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/what-councils-dont-tell-you-about.html

Media Notice: £37 Council Tax hidden in £102 Court Costs to pay Haringey's Corporate Overheads — claims Revd Paul Nicolson

Guest Blog post from Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty

MEDIA NOTICE

Rev Paul Nicolson

Tottenham 

1st August 2016

Revd Paul Nicolson Tottenham demo

02083765455

0761177889

£37 COUNCIL TAX HIDDEN IN £102 COURT COSTS TO PAY HARINGEY'S CORPORATE OVERHEADS - CLAIMS REV PAUL NICOLSON 

On the 4th August in Tottenham Magistrates Court I will be claiming that I have been unlawfully overcharged by at least £37 to pay the corporate overheads of Haringey Council in the court costs of £102 charged to me on a summons to the Magistrates court date 26th May 2016 and to 24,796 late and non paying residents of Haringey very many of whom are vulnerable. 

THERE WILL BE A DEMONSTRATION

​ AGAINST THE COUNCIL TAX ​

​

OUTSIDE TOTTENHAM MAGISTRATES' COURT, LORDSHIP LANE, N17 6RT COURT AT 10AM  ON THURSDAY 4TH AUGUST. 

The effect of Haringey including the £926,655 corporate overheads when calculating the £102 court costs charge for a summons by the council increases the council tax by £37 a year. (see attachment) 

I will be arguing that corporate overheads are part of the normal administrative costs of the council. Mrs Justice Andrews made it clear that court costs are to be treated as separate from administrative costs in the case that I won against the Magistrates and the Council in the High Court last year.   

This is important because £37 extra tax in £102 court costs on top of arrears can be the last straw which causes the hunger that forces thousands to visit the food banks. 

The impact of Haringey taxing the benefit incomes, shredded by central government, of the most vulnerable in Tottenham, where I live, since April 2013 has been devastating. £37 is a substantial part the £44 minimum food budget needed for a healthy diet for a week by a single adult. It is researched by nutritionists at the University of York, agreed as reasonable in public consultation and published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. (see table 1)

Three powerful departments of government DWP, DCLG and MOJ are simultaneously damaging the health of vulnerable, disabled, mentally and physically ill households in Haringey. 

The UK has a failing benefit system which requires councils to stop piling local agony on national inhumanity.

The total JSA for a single adult is £73.10 week. It has been paying the council tax and rent due to the bedroom tax since April 2013 and  fined for minor offences such as evading payements of TV licences and fares which cannot be afforded. It has also been stopped with a sanction for one month, three months or three years. Increasing rents mercilessly consume incomes needed to buy food and the fuel to cook it. . 

Note to editors,

My claim of overcharging by £37 is calculated as follows. 

The total cost of corporate overheads charged to court costs incurred up to the times of summons is £926,655 (see attached "Revised Cost Calculations 2015/16)

50% of corporate overheads £926,655 /24,796 summons = £37.

£37 of corporate overheads cannot be justified as a "cost reasonably incurred by the council in connection with the application" to the magistrates court for a summons.  Mrs Justice Andrews made it clear that court costs are to be treated as separate from administrative costs (paras 35-44). Corporate overheads are administrative costs to be spread among all council tax payers not dumped on late and non payers.  

It is a long standing principle in tax taxation law that sums have to be precisely calculated and the basis of taxation clearly defined. This £37 tax has been hidden in court costs. 

Since the council started taxing benefits of its poorest residents in April 2013 summons costs have been waived or withdrawn 21,258 times showing a loss of income to the council of £2.5 million.  (council witness statement). This inevitable consequence of taxing the lowest incomes in no way alters the unlawfulness of including corporate overheads in the court costs of over 40,000 late and non paying residents over the three years so increasing the council tax of those whose summons was neither waived nor withdrawn.   

Rev Paul Nicolson

93 Campbell Road, 

London N17 0BF

02083765455

07961177889

from the Reverend Paul Nicolson

Taxpayers Against Poverty

No citizen without an affordable home and an 

adequate income in work or unemployment. 

93 Campbell Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BF, 0208 3765455, 07961 177889, 

https://www.facebook.com/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty-299911526728884/

https://twitter.com/taxpayers_a_p www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk, 

www.z2k.org, www.prohousingalliance.com

PLEASE HELP FUND TAP

It is now possible to sign up as members for our email list using the join panel, and to help fund TAP on the TAP website, or to join TAP without contributing funds, membership is free.

Some people prefer to follow on twitter and Facebook but not on email.

Those of us who can afford to fund TAP are supporting those who cannot.

We need to raise £50,000 a year.

When you can please sign up for a monthly payment. 

​​or you can send a cheque or cash to;

Taxpayers Against Poverty Ltd, 

93 Campbell Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BF

or pay into Taxpayers Against Poverty Ltd a/c at

Branch sort code;40-06-20; Account Number; 71664603

Revd Paul Nicolson says he will stop protesting against his local authority when they stop taxing benefit incomes

Kwug with Revd Paul Nicolson, Haringey Unite Community, and Disabled People Against Cuts

Today at Tottenham Magistrates Court, members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group joined other supporters of Revd Paul Nicolson in his case against LB Haringey levying Council Tax on people on State Benefits. 

Tottenham Magistrates Court and Haringey Council put on notice about the errors of their ways

Haringey Council's 'hounding the poor' practice, as he has argued, leads to debt-induced evictions where the Council chases people too poor to pay. His supporters today included members of Haringey Unite Community Branch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Winvisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities) and SOAP (Speak Out Against Psychiatry). There was also a reporter from London Live News on hand to interview Revd Paul.(1) [Link to today's interview currently pending]

Revd Paul with London Live interviewer

Empathising with Revd Paul's stand, Kwuggies attending our Burnout Workshop on Tuesday 2 August signed a 'thank you' card for Revd Paul for his role as a 'great teacher'. That card was hand delivered to his Tottenham home on Wednesday afternoon and greatly appreciated by the recipient while his local authority and Tottenham Magistrates did not appreciate the basic arithmetical lessons that he was trying to teach them, nor the value of life and what debt does to people in council wards marked as being 'low birth weight capitals' of not only Britain but also the Western World.

So as our friend Paul notes:(2)

Haringey taxes poorest residents of most deprived UK wards with low life expectancy & high rate of low birth-weight

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES

BENEFIT INCOMES OF POOREST RESIDENTS

OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS

WITH LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND

HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

MEDIA RELEASE
Rev Paul Nicolson
020 8376 5455
07961 177 889

I will stop protesting when Haringey stops taxing benefit incomes. 

'Rubber stamping tens of thousands of Council Tax liability orders indicates that Haringey Council is not operating with due scrutiny regarding the  basic well-being of the poorest LB Haringey residents. Do they care?

Haringey Council continues to 'know the price of everything' in terms of the charges they levy against Council Tax debtors, and the 'value of nothing' in terms of human life of vulnerable people. Yet as an exemplary teacher, Revd Paul is clearly not giving up on such unwilling students as Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates Court. He exemplifies caring with his stance of continued defiance to injustice by the State.

Or has Conservative & Unionist Party Government so muzzled the judiciary that they dare not make any decisions that threaten the prospects of a wholesale return to debtors' prison society?

Who will report Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates to UN human rights investigators?

When is the next demonstration? The next lesson for those who really lack legitimate authority?

Link addresses

1. Link to today's interview currently pending http://www.londonlive.co.uk/search?keyword=paul+nicolson
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/media-release

Revd Paul Nicolson says he will stop protesting against his local authority when they stop taxing benefit incomes

Kwug with Revd Paul Nicolson, Haringey Unite Community, and Disabled People Against Cuts

Today at Tottenham Magistrates Court, members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group joined other supporters of Revd Paul Nicolson in his case against LB Haringey levying Council Tax on people on State Benefits. 

Tottenham Magistrates Court and Haringey Council put on notice about the errors of their ways

Haringey Council's 'hounding the poor' practice, as he has argued, leads to debt-induced evictions where the Council chases people too poor to pay. His supporters today included members of Haringey Unite Community Branch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Winvisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities) and SOAP (Speak Out Against Psychiatry). There was also a reporter from London Live News on hand to interview Revd Paul.(1) [Link to today's interview currently pending]

Revd Paul with London Live interviewer

Empathising with Revd Paul's stand, Kwuggies attending our Burnout Workshop on Tuesday 2 August signed a 'thank you' card for Revd Paul for his role as a 'great teacher'. That card was hand delivered to his Tottenham home on Wednesday afternoon and greatly appreciated by the recipient while his local authority and Tottenham Magistrates did not appreciate the basic arithmetical lessons that he was trying to teach them, nor the value of life and what debt does to people in council wards marked as being 'low birth weight capitals' of not only Britain but also the Western World.

So as our friend Paul notes:(2)

Haringey taxes poorest residents of most deprived UK wards with low life expectancy & high rate of low birth-weight

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES

BENEFIT INCOMES OF POOREST RESIDENTS

OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS

WITH LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND

HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

MEDIA RELEASE
Rev Paul Nicolson
020 8376 5455
07961 177 889

I will stop protesting when Haringey stops taxing benefit incomes. 

'Rubber stamping tens of thousands of Council Tax liability orders indicates that Haringey Council is not operating with due scrutiny regarding the  basic well-being of the poorest LB Haringey residents. Do they care?

Haringey Council continues to 'know the price of everything' in terms of the charges they levy against Council Tax debtors, and the 'value of nothing' in terms of human life of vulnerable people. Yet as an exemplary teacher, Revd Paul is clearly not giving up on such unwilling students as Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates Court. He exemplifies caring with his stance of continued defiance to injustice by the State.

Or has Conservative & Unionist Party Government so muzzled the judiciary that they dare not make any decisions that threaten the prospects of a wholesale return to debtors' prison society?

Who will report Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates to UN human rights investigators?

When is the next demonstration? The next lesson for those who really lack legitimate authority?

Link addresses

1. Link to today's interview currently pending http://www.londonlive.co.uk/search?keyword=paul+nicolson
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/media-release

Department of Work and Pensions is in denial about the strong link between ill health and the Government's benefit reforms

The Secretary of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group thanks Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty for his consistent work on social justice throughout 2013 so far and before, and looks forward to campaigning with him in 2014.

Paul Nicolson writes:

Dear all.

This is my last email before the New Year. It is a letter published by the Church Times yesterday 20th December.

It sets up a description of the gross injustices imposed on the poorest people in the UK by the coalition government against which all our efforts will be pitched in 2014. 

If you do not do Christmas have a restful and happy break and get ready!, 

If you do have a restful and happy break and take courage from Christian leadership in several denominations, who have seen that the current unjust laws and structures cause hunger in cold and too costly homes, or homelessness, and must be changed.

With very best wishes to all,

Paul

 Department of Work and Pensions is in denial about the strong link between ill health and the homelessness, debts, food and fuel poverty that are due to the Government's benefit reforms;

or deliberately making the poorest people ill. 
From the Revd Paul Nicolson

Sir, - Shortly after the British Medical Journal (News, 6 December) sounded the alarm about malnutrition in the UK, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published its annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion.

One of its many important comments reads: 'The poverty rate for the whole population was 21 per cent measured after housing costs are deducted (AHC) and 16 per cent measured before housing costs (BHC) are deducted. This gap of five percentage points is the highest it has been for a decade, and has been growing, although slowly, since the middle of the last decade."

The steadily increasing price and rent of a home is partly to blame. The growth of the gap is being reinforced by the Government's caps and cuts, and council tax. The high retail price of meeting human needs, the rent of a decent home, and taxation in the UK are now crushing a healthy life out of the AHC incomes of her poorest citizens.

A typical example is a 60-year-old, who wrote to Taxpayers Against Poverty, telling us that he had become ill and unemployed after 40 years' unbroken taxpaying employment. The £71.70-a-week unemployment benefit was paid after housing and council-tax benefit, and untaxed, until April this year. He now has to pay the bedroom tax and the council tax, which leaves him in debt and with £53.20.

Robust research undertaken by nutritionists at York University for Rowntree, and checked with users both on and off benefits, shows that the minimum income needed by a single adult for a healthy diet is £50.11 a week. He will be both cold and hungry this winter while worrying about how to pay his inevitable debts.

The BMJ published concern in January about the relation between foetal malnutrition and chronic disease in later life. Low birth weight and the UK's poverty incomes of women are linked; but the Department of Work and Pensions is in denial about the strong link between ill health and the debts, food and fuel poverty that are due to the Government's benefit reforms.

PAUL NICOLSON

Taxpayers Against Poverty
93 Campbell Road
London N17 OBF




Please sign our petition celebrating Martin Luther King
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/53579
Parliament is asked to debate the speech made by Martin Luther King 50 Years ago in Washington USA on the 28 August 1963 and to note that it can be applied to circumstances in Britain in August 2013. He said “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”


Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
93 Campbell Road,
Tottenham,
London N17 0BF
0208 3765455
07961 177889
also at www.z2k.org
also at www.prohousingalliance.com
www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk
www.facebook.com/pages/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty/299911526728884

 

Let us not help Theresa May bury the bad news about Universal Credit rollout, suicides and homelessness under a Brexit General Election

Yesterday's Kwug Blog carried a 'guest blog post' from Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty.(1) Even in his mid-80's, Revd Paul is extremely prolific with his offerings and far quicker to respond than this disabled person. The best I can do to 'catch up with him' is generally to forward e-mail notifications of the Taxpayers Against Poverty (TAP) website on to the Kilburn Unemployed e-list, but even then be selective so as not to give vulnerable list members a sense of melt-down and information overload.(2)

The Kwug Blog 'guest contribution' posted yesterday, — A Universal Credit case study — however, included tabulated data that proved difficult to transmit by e-mail and provided valuable information about Universal Credit that the general public are largely ignorant about, and corporate mass media generally keeps buried while Universal Credit-related rent arrears can catapult the number of evictions from social housing.(3) It can take up to 12 weeks for a Universal Credit claim to be processed and thus for the claimant to get any Universal Credit income; yet under English Law, eviction proceedings can begin after just eight weeks or rent arrears.(4)

Revd Paul Nicolson does not keep his incisive light buried under a bushel, and though his latest offering by e-mail has not yet made it to the TAP website, I can help here to get the message out as soon as possible even while I was hoping to prioritise other things just now.

Referenda and General Elections are too often based not on real knowledge of issues, and the results are mangled in an unrepresentative 'first past the post' electoral system that is too influenced by the wealthy. Whatever the result of an 8 June General Election, it will not really be a mandate for what the people have heard too litlle of. I should add that while the KUWG focus is mainly on the benefits system while housing law is too complex for us to handle, TAP has a more extensive overview of things, and more specific to LB Haringey where Revd Paul lives.

With that, I shall just bring in Revd Paul's latest offering.

During election TAP will do what we do

Highlight depth of income poverty!!  

YELL "HOUSING CRISIS!!"

​

--

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES BENEFIT INCOMES OF ITS POOREST RESIDENTS OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS WITH 

LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

from the Reverend Paul Nicolson

Taxpayers Against Poverty

No citizen without an affordable home and an 

adequate income in work or unemployment. 

93 Campbell Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BF, 0208 3765455, 07961 177889, 

https://www.facebook.com/Taxpayers-Against-Poverty-299911526728884/

https://twitter.com/taxpayers_a_p www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk, 

www.z2k.org, www.prohousingalliance.com

Link references

http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/a-universal-credit-case-study-by-revd-paul-nicolson.html
http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/
http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/a-universal-credit-case-study-by-revd-paul-nicolson.html 
https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/07/15/sharing-knowledge-in-the-face-of-further-attacks/