Disabled families and working parents with young children could face paying hundreds of pounds extra in council tax.

Under proposals to cut £1m from the Braintree council tax bill 5,541 working age benefit claimants will have to pay more to make up the shortfall- pensioners are exempt.

In scenarios discussed by the council a disabled couple with three children under the age of 10, who receive £386 incapacity benefit and child tax credit, could be worst off under the changes.

They could face paying an extra £478 in council tax- a rise of 48 per cent.

Another example of a couple, with four children under 13-years-old, who are both working more than 16 hours per week and receive housing benefit for their housing association home and tax credits, could face a rise of £316.

The changes, which will be brought in in April next year, come as the Government abolishes council tax benefit, replacing it with a Local Council Support Scheme but cutting 10 per cent of the funding- £1m in Braintree’s case.

Council leader Graham Butland said: “We have decided that we would not go down the line of just increasing council tax."

See this week's Times for the full story.