Council Tax underpayment docked from wages without permission

McKneff

Thanks for that pink princess, saved me a job.
Hope that can settle your friends mind a bit Cepheus
Regards
annie

cepheus

anniehanlon wrote: »

Hope that can settle your friends mind a bit Cepheus

Well not unless he is given the option of a lower payment quickly. £45 per week means he will have to borrow and go into debt! Problem is they can't seem to get through to anyone (so they say).

I have asked his wife to go to the council offices with the letter they sent to her and find out what the total amount is and why (they refused to discuss my friends salary deduction with her). Problem is she will ask all the wrong questions and will be easily fobbed off! It is incredible they can do this at such short notice without more information.

pink_princess

But it won t be £45 per week it will be the percentages stated above.They asked for £45 before the earning attachment ,now that is in place it will be the percentages stated above .They were just trying to get him to pay £45 ,that isn t the amount that will be enforced.Does that explain it better for you Cepheus .Im probably not being clear lol

cepheus

OK that is clearer now Princess, providing the whole £45 is not enforced

Thanks

RobertoMoir

cepheus wrote: »

Well not unless he is given the option of a lower payment quickly. £45 per week means he will have to borrow and go into debt! Problem is they can't seem to get through to anyone (so they say).

I have asked his wife to go to the council offices with the letter they sent to her and find out what the total amount is and why (they refused to discuss my friends salary deduction with her). Problem is she will ask all the wrong questions and will be easily fobbed off! It is incredible they can do this at such short notice without more information.

The point is, they probably aren't doing it "at short notice" and "without more information".

Garnishing someone's salary isn't done lightly - the debt should have been to court and a court should have issued a liability order, I wouldn't be surprised if bailiffs hadn't been involved, all that kind of stuff. The council would very likely have sent all kinds of reminders, demands, etc. prior to this point.

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, it's just likely that either something has gone very wrong with the council's recovery department here, or you've not been given the whole story. Councils don't just randomly pick people off a list of people who are 3 days late paying their monthly bill and dip into their salary for the lols.

CIS

Maybe recovery work has turned me very cynical but if I (and I bet every council tax dept is the same) had a £1 for every demand,reminder and summons not received I'd be able to pay everyone's council tax for them.

Mikeyorks

cepheus wrote: »

It is incredible they can do this at such short notice without more information.

I think your friend is being a bit sparing with the information. He's had a minimum of a default notice and a Summons - and probably a lot more. And the debt is now at least 9 months old. Just how much more information does he / she consider should be provided

black_paw

yes prob more to the eye , as taking wages is the last resort, my friend owes 1+ years , said will sent in bailiffs which frighten them , but they wont go in to sort it out, at a appointment , they have the correct paper work showing they shouldn't pay as out of work then .so don't owe ...but won't go in the the office ... silly before long the bailiffs will come and its there fault ! shame but true

CIS

The fact they were out of work wont matter , council tax is still due whether your employed or unemployed.

They may have had entitlement to council tax benefit but its extremely unlikely that they would get backdating of council tax benefit so they do owe the outstanding balance until it is paid.

McKneff

There has always got to be a court judgement before bailiffs are sent.

And i do agree with the other posters that your friend has not given you all the information. But I suppose thats understandable under the circumstances, he probably feels very embarrassed and asked for your help as a last resort.
Regards