council tax attachment of earnings help

sunflower_2

hi everyone

i have just received a letter from council tax saying they have written to my employer to recover £128.00 for debit owed from a house i left in november 2005.
i had a direct debit set up and therefore thought it had all been paid, i honestly had no idea.

i have rang today and they said i cancelled the direct debit (yes i did but not for a couple of months after i moved as i thought it was finished)
they have said that the only way i can cancel the attachment is to pay the £128.00 in full.
i cant do this at the moment as I am on maternity leave and just do not have that type of money spare

i would have liked to pay it over 3 months but they wont allow me - is this fair?

going by the percentages on the attachment thing they will only be getting approx £7.00 per month - why wont they give me a chance to pay it over the 3 month ???

am gutted - i feel so embarrassed having money taken from my pay

**purpleprincess**

Usually once an attachment is set up it can only be cancelled if paid in full. This is because it's like an insurance for the council that it will actually get paid. It won't show up anywhere like your credit rating, I wouldn't worry about it and just let it go out at the £7odd a month. Your employers can't say anything to anyone else about it anyway!

rog2

Look at it this way - Having £7.00 a month deducted from your pay means it will take the council 19 months to get what you offered over 3 months. They chose it.

**purpleprincess**

OR, if you really want it cleared in the 3 months just pay the amount you offered minus £7 and then it will be cleared in 3 months and they'll have to cancel it!! Or just leave it!!

tobedifferent

One thing that I would say about this is what is the £128 made off? To get an attachment of earnings order they need to have taken you to court, before this happens you would have received at least 2 reminders, a summons and then a liability order but if this is the first you knew about it I figure you got none of these. If this is the case then the £128 is probably about £80 in costs and charges.

If you didn't let them have a forwarding address you are still liable but if you did give them a forwarding address and they havn't actioned it then they would have to refund costs back to your account. This would most likely leave you with a bill of just a few pounds to pay.

Most of the processes are automatic now so letters and summons are created automatically. I work for the council and have seen it before when your address is input on the notes etc when you phone up or put on the document system when you write but is not input as your postal address so the letters still go to the old address. They may not have noticed they were sending to the wrong address until your employer notified them.

So if you did let them know (almost impossible not to have if you live in the same council area and are registered for Ctax at your new house - the notes may be on your new house file and not again actioned at the old address) then phone, write and if necessary kick up a right stink till they sort it!

Just this week I saw a benefit and ctax overpayment marked as not paid, they couldn't track down the people apparently, I managed to find them in five minutes flat - they had move down the road been into the council made a counter statement informing the change of address, new account set up and nothing put on the old accounts to notify a change!

MCBIRNIE25

Hi, you can apply for it to be recovered from your account again and not as an attachment of earnings. There is a form on the court website, go to https://www.courtservice.gov.uk