A concerned Dartford councillor has warned changes to council tax discounts will "plunge hardworking families into poverty."

At the moment, local authorities calculate council tax relief by comparing a person's weekly income to a fixed weekly amount the government considers is enough to live on. Other variables, including benefits received, are taken into consideration when calculating a person's discount.

However, under a new scheme, a tier system of income bands will be introduced - which Labour councillor Jonathan Hawkes has said is "being implemented to cut the cost of administering council tax relief which is being forced up by the botched introduction of Universal Credit."

Discounts will range between 20 and 80 per cent based on the size of the applicant's household and the weekly wage being brought in.

For example, under the new scheme a couple or lone parent with one child earning less than £180 a week will receive an 80 per cent discount, compared to a family of the same size earning over £380 who will then not be eligible for council tax relief.

The new system will also see the maximum amount of savings a person can have before they apply for a discount fall from £16,000 to £6,000.

These changes have been proposed across a number of boroughs in response to the eventual full rollout of Universal Credit (UC) in the next couple of years.

As UC payments will be assessed on a monthly basis, a report by the council states that this could lead to a number of changes to a person's council tax discount rate over the year and lead to delays and a "demonstrable loss" in collection.

In this report it is noted that these changes have been designed to not only tackle the problems of introducing full UC, but also deal with the increase in administration costs which the council faces under the current scheme from re-calculating people's discounts due to changes in their UC payments.

However, Cllr Hawkes warned that wage bands could mean that a person who earns £75 a week and is liable for 20 per cent of their council tax could see that significantly increase to 40 per cent if they were to begin earning £80 a week, a fiver in the difference

At a council meeting on Monday, shadow leader Cllr Hawkes expressed his concern that this new system would disincentivise people from working extra hours as this could push them into the upper wage band, leading to a reduction in tax relief.

"I don't see that it makes any sense whatsoever for this council to contemplate approving a scheme that is going to see disproportionally high increases in council tax liability for very, very modest increases in income," he said.

This was echoed by Cllr Mark Maddison who then asked councillors to consider deferring the change for another 12 months, arguing there was not enough evidence to show the new scheme would be better for families in the borough.

"At minimum wage, we're talking about bands which are covered by as little as five or six hours a week extra work. For so many people, changes of five or six hours a week are commonplace," he said.

Council leader Jeremy Kite said these issues were raised and discussed in cabinet advisory meetings and reassured members the banding will work in exactly the same way in as the current reassessment model does.