council refused payment plan, what now?

stephbond89

You may remember i wrote a post a couple of weeks back about our council tax arrears. Well today we got a letter through saying our offer of £150 a month (on a £1500 debt) had been rejected and that the least they would accept was £200 per month.

We have an income of £1300, and sent them a means form which clearly showed that even £150 was pushing it for a payment, but now they are saying this is the least they;'ll go to because they haven't received a payment (we have only recently got our finances under control and until this month had an extra £150 going out of our account in car insurance and a loan which has just been paid off. So we can now finally afford this payment plan, whereas before we couldn't, we couldn't even afford to make a small payment on the account, I think we last made a payment in May of something like £73.

Bt anyway, they are now saying that they're not willing to help or change their minds and if we dont stick to this unreasonable in my eyes payment plan, they will take further recovery action without further notice.

I am 33 weeks pregnant and this is really putting stress on me, I have already been told to rest due to stress and now this is stressing me and my husband out even more.

Yes I know it is our fault at the end of the day, and could I go back anf change it and pay that on top of the car insurance, I would have done...but I was silly stupid and naive (i dont need to be told that again so please no sarcastic remarks) and now we have gotten ourselves in a mess, but we have contacted them at every point, never just left it to deal with itself, I have emailed them a lot (I dont like phoning them as i never have a record of what has been said, but i have phoned a few times too), and thought from wht they were saying that we were going to be ok paying this £150 a month.

For me, £150 (basically 10% of the arrears every month) was mroe than reasonable, and most people wouldn't even offer that, and would say I'll pay you £50 a month that's all we can afford, but we didnt we put in a serious offer of payment.

We decided we are going to pay them £150 per month anyway, and "ignore" the payment arrangement they have made, hopefully they will revise their offer once they see we are making a regular payment of £150 per month, but I don't know what else to say to them. My husband phoned them this morning and said "go to CAB about it if your not happy", but as far as I am concered there is nothing they can do about it but tell us what we already know about paying what we can, but we're going to see them tuesday anyway to see, but id really like some advice, anyone else been through this with their own council??

I have also emailed them and told them that I find it unreasonable and that we simply cannot afford it, the thing is they ask for an unreasonable amount which they can see we cannot afford, they clearly WANT me to not pay so they can take it further adding more costs, I would have thought they would want to get a regular payment in and £150 is much better than nothing!!!

I looked into a loan for the full balance to clear it, but we have bad credit and nowhere will give us one, that was probably a stupid idea anyway though and would just move one debt to somewhere else!!

Any advice would be much appreciated, but please i only want answers from people who want to help and not people who want to have a go at me for this situation Im in and point out the blearingly obvious, im in a mess.

Tixy

Hi

I would definitely start making the £150 payments anyway, regardless of what they have said so far. That does show willing. Do they have a court liability order for this debt?
Do you have any other debts that you are currently repaying?

Some people have had luck if they get their local councillor involved, although I know this is often used when people are dealing with council baliffs rather than the council direct. Still it might be worth a try.

dancingfairy

Hi Steph - are you paying out any other money towards debts? ie credit cards/overdraft payments/unsecured loans etc? they may well have looked at your SOA and decided that since they have priority you sould not be paying the credit cards etc and should be paying the council tax? - this could be why they have refused payment.
As I haven't read your previous thread could you confirm that a liability order has been issued? and what has happened since then.
Could you say what your situation is with regards to your income - are you both working?
These questions will help us advise you what to do.
Thanks
df

dancingfairy

Also whether this is just arrears or this years payments too? what year the arrears are from? also whether your offer of 150 is the current council tax payment plus the arrears or what.
df
The reason they are asking for 200 is because it will show up on their accounts any money which is not collected before the end of the council tax year and they really,really want everything paid before end of march , preferably with the last payment in Jan - I'm not sure if it affects how much they get from the goverment or not but that is why they are pushing for the 200 a month. Don't panic though - there will be a solution.

Ames

They've probably refused because they want it to be paid off by April when the next council tax year starts, so they want to have balanced books by then. I'd start paying the £150 and speak to your local councillor.

dancingfairy

Lol. I just editted my post to say that - exactly - they want it paid by April.
Your local councillor would certainly be worth getting involved at this point - especially if you have emails as proof you have tried to sort things out.
df

stephbond89

Hello thanks for the quick replies!!

No no liability order has been obtained, we got a summons letter with a court date of the 11th August, but we phoned up and got a means form which we had to fill in (i will put this at the end of the reply!), and send back with offer of payment, I am guessing if we dont make these payments, by the 30th August (the date the first payment is due to be made), another summons will be issued, and then a liability order will be obtained???

Yes we pay £50 per month off other debts to a couple of credit card companies and catalogues, these people are also threatening with court, though Im not as bothered abut them as they're only for a few hundred each and I know that should it go to court they'd see our mess. Each creditor gets around £3-£5 each a month. But I know the council arrears come way above these arrears!!

HEre is our Income and Expenditure thing

My husband works full time earning on average £1300 per month. I do not work, dont get me wrong I have looked lol, but found nothing, now I am 33 weeks pregnant and so cannto work anyway (was told by doctor he'd signed me off work due to the stress but as i didnt work, he didnt need to do anything or something...!), we get no benefits (we'll get cild benefit and tax credits of around £100 a month as of Septembr when baby comes but thats for baby things not oaying our debts). So our only income comes from hubbys wage

Rent

£420

Council Tax (allowance)

£150

Car Insurance

£35

Breakdown

£15

Loan

£45

Travel Expenses

£100

Gas

£60

Electric

£35

Water

£50

Overdraft Payment

£40

TV/Phone/Internet

£65

Mobile Phones

£90

Food/Housekeeping

£90

Car Expenses (Tax/MOT/Repair)

£20

TV Licence (Going down in November approx to £15 pcm)

£35

Debt Repayment

£50

dancingfairy

O.k so that means it's only this years Council Tax which is owing and that presumably that is the remainder you need to pay by the end of the year as they will have taken away your right to pay in installments.
Sadly you may not be able to avoid a liability order - basically a lot of people will only pay when threatened with a liability order and the councils tend to use it as a security - ie they will then arrange a payment plan when the liability order has been granted as they know if you mess up then they can get the bailiffs involved etc without having to go back to court. Bad news is this is likely to cost more money. Good news is that 1) it doesn't affect your credit rating, 2) you won't need to go as it is unlikely to acheive anything as all the judge will be interested in is has the council followed procedure - not why you haven't paid - do you owe the money, has the council billed you and have you paid. It's very much a rubber stamping procedure so please don't worry too much.
2 thoughts at this point:
1) try an official complaint to your council tax department - it is therefore more likely to get dealt with by someone senior - you may well have only been dealing with the frontline staff so far so you need to take it one step further.
2) the other option which can also be very useful is to contact the councillor - they are elected by the people and know that they have to keep their constituents happy and if councillors get involved the council will start to take more notice.
I would also make it clear to whoever you speak to/email that you are pregnant and ill with stress and have repeatedly sought to resolve this issue.
Good Luck
df

Ames

Hi, could you fill out this budget sheet:

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

It's a lot more detailed. From what you've put above you're paying way over the odds on a lot of things, but this'll break it down more and make it easier to see. You never know we could find that extra £50 for you!

stephbond89

Statement of Affairs & Personal Balance Sheet

Summary

Monthly Budget SummaryAmount(£)Total monthly income1,300Monthly expenses (incl. HP & secured loans)1,297Available for debt repayments3UNsecured debt repayments0Amount left after debt repayments3

Personal Balance Sheet SummaryAmount(£)Total Assets (things you own)200Total Secured & HP Debt-0Total Unsecured Debt-0Net Assets200
Household Information

Number of adults in household2Number of children in household.5Number of cars owned1
Income, Expense, Debt & Asset Details

IncomeAmount(£)Monthly income after tax1300Partners monthly income0Benefits0Other income0Total monthly income1300

ExpensesAmount(£)Mortgage0Secured/HP loan payments0Rent420Management charge (leasehold property)0Council tax150Electricity35Gas60Oil0Water Rates50Telephone (land line)11Mobile phone90TV Licence35Satellite/Cable TV55Internet services0Groceries etc.90Clothing0Petrol/diesel100Road tax10Car Insurance43Car maintenance (including MOT)0Car Parking0Other travel0Childcare/nursery0Other child related expenses0Medical (prescriptions, dentists, opticians etc.)0Pet Insurance/Vet bills0Buildings Insurance0Contents Insurance13Life Assurance0Other Insurance0Presents (birthday, christmas etc.)0Haircuts0Entertainment0Holiday0Emergency Fund0debt management50overdraft payment40loan45Total monthly expenses1297

Secured & HP Debt DescriptionDebt(£)Monthly(£)APR(%)Mortgage0(0) 0Secured & HP Debt totals0- -

Unsecured Debt DescriptionDebt(£)Monthly(£)APR(%)Unsecured Debt totals00-

Asset DescriptionValue (£)Cash0House Value (Gross)0Shares and bonds0Car(s)200Other assets (e.g. endowments, jewellery etc) 0Total Assets200
Comments on the results
You have sufficient monthly income to meet your expenses and your minimum monthly debt repayments with £3 left over. You can use this to pay off your debts more quickly or to build/top-up an emergency fund. Whatever your results show, it always pays to seek advice or comments from others. Why not post your SOA details on our Debt Management discussion board or on your preferred discussion forum elsewhere. Thankyou for using the SOA Calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.


Just to clarify our tv licence is so high because of starting it halfway through the year, so we are having to pay a very high amount until the new Tv license year!

I have been through this whole thing before though, got a lot of nasty remarks from people because I said that i cannot lower the payments on any of the things in my budget due to them been in contracts etc. Trust me, it has been tried lol!!!!

RAS

Can you do it agqain and hit the format for MSE button, please