Council Tax Problems

GCQ

To cut a long story short, I got into trouble with my council tax earlier this year. We missed our first two payments in April and May but paid 3 instalments at the beginning of June to "catch up". However by then a summons had been issued. Following this I contacted the council to sort it out and agreed that I would pay a certain amount each month to pay off the balance.

I then missed another payment in August and the council must have gone to court again - however we didnt know about this - and they got an attachment of earnings order which I discovered in October. In the meantime I had made a couple more payments, and had about £550 of the balance outstanding. In early October, still unbeknown to me that an attachment of earnings had been instructed, I made another payment of £150 after I realised the direct debit had been cancelled mistakenly.

Then when I received my payslip this month I was shocked to see that they had deducted £323 from my salary - which is apparently 17% - the maximum they can claim from one month's salary. I phoned them up today to protest that £470 in one month is far too much for me to pay out on top of other debts, mortgage etc, and explained that had I known that an attachment of earnings was issued I wouldn't have paid the £150 voluntarily like I did. If I hadn't I would have been £150 better off this month even though I'm sure they would have taken it next month. Anyway it leaves me in an awkward position this month.

They basically said that once an attachment of earnings had been instructed the full balance becomes payable. I asked if they would refund the £150 payment i made based on the fact it was made voluntarily and that 17% was the maximum they could "take" each month although if you add the £150 on it becomes more like 26%. They bluntly refused, and when I asked how I could take this further they said there was nothing I could do and there was no appeals / complaints procedure.

Is there any chance of me getting anywhere with this or do I stand no chance ?

CIS

I then missed another payment in August and the council must have gone to court again - however we didn't know about this - and they got an attachment of earnings order which I discovered in October

They didn't need to go to court again - when the Liability Order was granted after the Court Summons the council are given powers to issues the Attachment of Earnings Orders (AOE) if needed to recover any outstanding balances.

How did you not realise that an AOE order has been in force for 2 months ?

Then when I received my payslip this month I was shocked to see that they had deducted £323 from my salary - which is apparently 17% - the maximum they can claim from one month's salary.

Once the order is served then the employer is legally required to take the amounts specified in the order - the fact that you have paid extra direct to the council does not remove this liability for the employer to take the specified % of your wages. The act specifies a series of wages bands and the % to take based on which band your wage falls in - if you had earned over £2020 Net in a month then you pay 50% of any earnings over that level and 17% of all earnings up to £2020.

They basically said that once an attachment of earnings had been instructed the full balance becomes payable. I asked if they would refund the £150 payment i made based on the fact it was made voluntarily and that 17% was the maximum they could "take" each month although if you add the £150 on it becomes more like 26%. They bluntly refused, and when I asked how I could take this further they said there was nothing I could do and there was no appeals / complaints procedure.

The council are under no obligation to refund as the payment was made againt debts owed - if you wish to take it further then you need to make an official complaint to the council.