Attachment of Earnings Order

stokelady

Hi

I had an unpaid speeding ticket that went to court - Total to be paid was £275 !

Negotiated payments of £5 per week, have missed a total of 3 payments and planned to catch up this week when I got paid, however have now received an AOE order :-(

I am currently already paying council tax arrears via attachment of earnings and have just rang the fines office to ask if I can bring my payments up to date and cancel the AOE - they point blankly refused and in fact were quite rude !

Can anyone suggest anything I can do - AOE can take 17% of my wages for every AOE so the month before christmas I could be looking at 34% less wages - I already can only just manage on what I earn.

Tried explaining all this on the phone and even offered to pay a month in advance but they woudn't listen, telling me it was not possible to cancel an AOE order once issued, when I know they can if they wanted to !

They origionaly accepted £5 per week after reviewing my income and expenditure figures as they could see I had very little disposable income, now I am really worried how I am going to manage over the christmas period.

Any advice how to go about getting them to reconsider?

Many thanks

timbstoke

Pop into the court and see what they say - an AOE must have been issued by a court so they should be able to give advice. I presume you didn't attend court for the hearing when they applied for it?

stokelady

think I was invited to attend court when I didnt pay the origional fine, but I wasnt invited to attend when they applied for the AOE.

Had AOE before and they tend to just get applied once payment is not received.

timbstoke

It's possible it was awarded at the same time as the one you were invited to attend, but not put in force until you missed payments. If you didn't attend the court may not know you already have an AOE. Either way, speak to the court and explain your situation.

stokelady

Thanks, I have rang the central enforcement unit are they the courts? They were the un-helpful people I spoke about :-(

mrtk1

The more you kick up a fuss, the more these clowns will cave in & panic.

stokelady

Im thinking about making a payment to put me well in front of the agreed weekly payments, then write to them explaining my current financial situation and that I already have an AOE and hope they take a bit more notice.

Spoken to two people on the phone at the central enforcment unit and they both said once the AOE has eben issued and it is not possible to cancel (which I know is sooooooooo un-true !)

head - bang- brickwall !!!! lol

Good thing is, today is payday - so I have 4 weeks to try and sort it !

Tixy

I'd have a read of this - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=22_attachment_of_earnings_in_the_county_court

The courts are allowed to award a maximum of 2 AOEs against you. And the 17% rate will be based on what you earn - its the maximum rate so presumably you earn over £1420 net per month - if so then it is legal to have 2 at 17% so 34% deducted from your wages.

The only thing I think you could possibly do would be to apply for a consolidated AoE - i don't know totally how these work and whether you would end up paying any less than the 34% - might be worth looking into it as an option.

If you don't earn the amount above then you need to contact the court (I think) to get the rate corrected so it corresponds to how much you do earn.

CIS

I believe the Attachment Orders will work the same for council tax as they do for fines as they are covered in the same guidance issued by the court.

Unless your wages are high then you wont have two orders taken at 17% - the first order will be taken at 17% and then your wages (less the first attachment) will be looked at and the relevant % taken from these wages.

The earliest issued order will take priority with the latest order being taken second - http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/aehandbook_e.pdf for further guidance.

stokelady

Hi, my wages do fall into the higher bracket, but I am a single mum with 2 teenagers so my wages are the only income and have to stretch - 1 x 17% is proving a struggle. 34% would mean fallin behind with other things :-(

Tixy

When you say you would fall behind with other things do you mean priority items like utilities or things like debt repayments to credit cards/unsecured loans etc?
If its the latter then unfortunately you may have to default on payments to any non-priority debts until these AoEs are paid off. But if you are still struggling and its not because of other debt repayments then it might be worth contacting one of the debt charities - perhaps national debtline for some advice and to see if there is anything you could do.