Why is the council so horrible???

loulouloulou_2

I have to agree- my council tax is high £127 a month and we live in a flat!!

BUT i do see where it goes to around where we live!

ALthough, my point with my experiance with the council people (or the two i spoke to anyway) were that even though it was their mistake and i had been scared inot thinking it would be taken further, bad credit, balifffs, etc.... i had no apology! Just a 'oh yeah you have paid, right disregard the letter'!!

It is rude, but it could happen anywhere i guess- its just who you speak to...!

A_Nice_Englishman

Just thought I'd throw this into the debate.

Most of the money councils spend doesn't come from council tax at all. It comes from central Governent out of Business Rates and general taxation and other sources.

For example, only one tenth of my local council's income is from council tax.

Gorgeous_George

Nobody likes to pay tax, that's a fact.

If everybody paid by direct debit and on time, council tax would be cheaper because the council would not need to employ people to chase up the non-payers. When council tax is written off, it simply means that everybody else is subsidising the write-off. That's unfair.

If you've paid on time and receive a letter saying you have not, I suggest that when you write back you request compensation to cover the cost of the letter. £12 seems to be the going rate from the banks. In return, the councils should charge £12 for sending out reminders and other letters that are out of the ordinary. Everybody deserves to be treated fairly - including those who pay on time.

If we could pick and choose the services we want, I'd choose not to pay for libraries or to subsidise local sports centres. In the end, we all use different services to greater or lesser degrees. We must accept that, a a community, we need to fund the services provided by the council.

As for pensions, I don't believe council workers pensions are exceptionally good. Pensions are a cost of employing people. Are we suggesting that public sector workers shouldn't receive pensions?



GG

Dan2779

My original post was a rant at how nasty the correspondance was from the council... I know that we have to pay it and on time but I do think they should be a little more sympathetic.. the letter I received just caused un-neccessary stress and worry when it could have been sorted out very easily!!!

Thanks

Danielle

xx

A_Nice_Englishman

Unfortunately local council culture doesn't always seem to include symapthy or politeness. I do wonder whether senior managers ever review the standard letters that are sent out or listen to the telephone calls between their staff and customers / "service users".

At least private sector call centre operators are usuallly polite and sympathetic even if they don't understand your query or are powerless to answer or resolve it.

ZTD

Gorgeous_George wrote:

If everybody paid by direct debit and on time, council tax would be cheaper because the council would not need to employ people to chase up the non-payers.

No it wouldn't. Councils charge as much as they can get away with. "The maximum amount of feathers for the least amount of hissing" is the phrase that I think most accurately describes it.

Councils determine their budgets once they know what their income will be. They don't determine what needs to be done, then set a budget based on that.

moneymare

Well you obviously all live in the wrong area then.......(joke).

The staff in the office where I work are all courteous, hard-working and fair-minded - and if a customer wants to point out an error that has been made, they receive an apology

As I stated in one of my previous posts, Bailiff action is always taken as a last resort.

Things like Reminder Letters are produced on a given day, and given the size of the organisation, will not included payments received on that day......therefore we always have 'an overspill' of complaints from people whose payments have 'crossed' with the reminder letters.

I too am not going to stand on a soapbox and claim that the authority I work for never makes mistakes - no organisation can claim that - my point was that in my experience, bailiffs have never been instructed to take action without several forms of correspondence going out. And if we do not have the option of using, for example, an Attachment of Earnings Order, would you like to suggest another way that the authority can enforce collection ???

lady_fuschia

I don't resent paying council tax at all (and I work for the council too!)
What does bother me is the tone of communications and the fact that they can't seem to get themselves organised.
A few months ago we called up to arrange to pay by weekly installments as opposed to monthly, the lady on the end of the phone explained that this was fine and she would send us out confirmation.
Shhe then went on to say "Oh you'll probably still get nasty letters telling you you haven't paid but just ignore them."
So they actually know and openly admit that they have a left hand/ right hand interface problem!

It also bugs me that every letter I have ever received informing me that I haven't paid (when usually I have) has begun with "despite being reminded previously"- they've obviously been sending out a lot of invisible letters!

Another that really bugged me was when following a non-payment letter that took away my right to pay in installments and demanded full payment, I phoned up to say I had paid, they found the payment on the computer and told me that was fine.

Two days later I received a headmistressy letter telling me that "on this one occasion I am prepared to overlook the violation of agreement and re-instate the agreed installment plan."

Well, gee- thanks...

cattie1

I just received a "despite previous reminder" letter too, I starting shouting at my OH saying you didn't tell me we have had a reminder, so he started screaming back that we hadn't-I went and paid my rent and am actually up to dte, so as well as everything else the council are causing arguments/rifts between families due to their incompetence!!! lol

Ames

I've just had an email from them. I got a bill a while back for the time when I was a student last year. Students are exempt from council tax. I emailed and told them this. I've just had a reply saying, that's fine we've cancelled that bill, but you owe us for the previous year. During that time I was on income support and full HB/CT.

So it seems that they can look at me when I was a student and assume that when I wasn't I was eligible, and they can look and see when I was on IS, but they can't see that the two states follow on from one another. Why can't they look at the whole of the account, rather than just part of it at a time?!