LOW income families in Oxford will continue to get their council tax bill paid for them in full after bosses refused to introduce new cuts.

Oxford City Council will not follow West Oxfordshire District Council’s move to cut the 100 per cent discount for its bills.

All councils have this year been given more control over how the benefit is paid while Government cash support has been cut by 10 per cent.

About 2,000 Oxford households get their whole bill covered, worth £1,600 for an average band D home.

Whether you can claim the discount depends on you and your dependents’ income, including benefits, savings, and the council tax value of your property.

West Oxfordshire District Council agreed on Wednesday to consult from September on cutting the discount to a maximum of 91.5 per cent, from April 1.

But a boss at the Labour-run city council said such cuts would hit the hard-up and could increase costs through collection methods.

Deputy city council leader Ed Turner said: “The experience from elsewhere is if you try to take money off people on low incomes you find you spend an awful lot of money on collection, like bailiffs.

“It is like trying to draw money from a stone.”

The 10 per cent funding gap will mostly be met by cutting council tax discounts on second and empty homes, Mr Turner said.

In West Oxfordshire, where a band D charge is £1,490, the proposed cuts would affect 1,310 households on the full discount.

Vale of White Horse, which gives 3,697 households the full discount and South Oxfordshire, where 3,836 receive it, will announce their plans by the end of the week. Cherwell District Council will publish details “within the next few months”.