A CHANGE in Government policy could see a sharp increase in council tax for people living in Droitwich and other parts of Wychavon.

Until this year Wychavon District Council has been allocated a sum of money to help people on benefits to pay rent and taxes.

But this year, Whitehall unexpectedly gave the Rent Allowance to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) instead, which in turn, isexpected to allocate an as-yet, unknown sum to the local authority.

But councillors and council officers say the new system could lose them hundreds of thousands of pounds for the service, and will have to find the money from another source - namely, the taxpayer.

"Last year we had £1m for rent allowances, and expected something similar this year, but now we don't know what we will receive, " said the head of financial services for Wychavon, Sonia Rees.

"We did not know about the change until the Government grants were announced last Wednesday.

"We phoned the DWP to see how much we would get and they did not know. It could be that we will have more than the £1m and be better off than before, but until we find out we will remain very concerned.

"We need to have all the information as soon as possible so we can assess the impact for council tax next year."

District services have fared badly overall with Government grants, losing out to education, social services, and the police.

"We have had just a 2.8 per cent increase, compared to five or six per cent for other services," added Rees.

"So we were already feeling down when we realised the changes to the Rent Allowance.

"At first glance it does not look at all good. A straight comparison of figures from this year to what the Government is saying we are getting next is, in fact, absolutely awful."