Birmingham Council is threatening to take me to court. Advice?

Sandwich

viktory wrote: »

Well, yeah. The old 'I thought someone else would inform them' line is the oldest in the book. Time to accept you should have taken responsibility for your council tax. Now you are paying the price.

Fair enough, but my Uni's website does say, quote:

"The University sends a data file to various local councils containing the details of all full-time students currently studying here."

But having said that, I'm not questioning my liability for Council Tax. If I wasn't exempt for that whole period of time, then that's that. I'm liable. All I'm saying is that if the Council are going to backdate my CT liability then they should also backdate my claim for CTB. Otherwise they are asking someone on an income of £6000/annum to pay the same amount of CT as someone on an income of £100,000/annum, which is just not right.

CIS

All I'm saying is that if the Council are going to backdate my CT liability then they should also backdate my claim for CTB.

They are two separate issues and are governed by two separate lots of legislation. CTB backdating regs are very tightly constrained unlike Council Tax where the council has the freedom to backdate as far as required.

Macro_3

All I'm saying is that if the Council are going to backdate my CT liability then they should also backdate my claim for CTB.

As CIS said, it doesn't work like that. CTB can only be backdated for up to six months. They cannot just backdate as far back as they please because they have taken pity on you.

You also have to show good cause for the entire period of the backdate. It is unlikely that ignorance of your liability would be seen as good cause, particularly because you failed to notify the CT dept. that you were a part time student. Although you were studying for more than 16 hours, for the purpose of your fees the university classed you as part time which should have been a clue - it would be reasonable to have expected to make a quick phone call to the CT dept to enquire, at least.

It is also likely that you will not get full benefit based on your income (depending, of course, on what it is). If you are only entitled to a few pounds per week, even with the full six months backdate, the bill will not decrease much.

Lastly, even though you were part time for council tax purposes you may be found to be full time for benefits purposes.

Sandwich

Well what should I do?

I'm on around £6000 per year. My bank balance is barely in the black. I have no assets that I can sell.

The Council wants me to pay £170 per month for god knows how long, or pay the full £1500 up front now. What can I do to make this situation work? I'm worried about it and stressed out. I don't want bailiffs knocking at my door and I don't want to get even more in debt because of court fees. I've called the Council and they won't put a hold on this bill. I called the benefits people and they say that the last letter I sent will take approximately 28 days to process, so god knows how long my application will take to complete. I do not know what to do.

sueturnersmith

I would go to the Citizens Advice Bureau and ask for help. They may not be able to, but it's worth a try....

Oldernotwiser

If your account is in the black, do you have a student overdraft you could use?

Alternatively, 6 hours work per week at NMW will cover the repayments.

Hammyman

Sandwich wrote: »

No I don't think that's a disgrace. Disgrace is quite a harsh word.

A mistake is a better word to describe my fault because actually if I had informed the Council that I was a part-time student I would have been eligible for CT benefit, which I most likely would have received given that my income in the years in question was less than £6000. So it's not like I was trying to defraud the Council or anything.

Disgrace is more apt to described putting somebody in a cage because they could not pay a bill. Note: I said 'could not', not would not, because it is not a matter of choice when you literally do not have an income sufficient to be able to afford a yearly CT bill of nearly £1000 on top of rent, groceries, heat, etc, etc.

No, disgrace is the appropriate word. It is a disgrace that someone who purports to be so highly educated claims to "not know" that they had to report a change of circumstances to the council when all the accompanying literature on all income related benefits state you HAVE to notify the council, DWP or HMRC of any change.

Hammyman

Sandwich wrote: »

All I'm saying is that if the Council are going to backdate my CT liability then they should also backdate my claim for CTB. Otherwise they are asking someone on an income of £6000/annum to pay the same amount of CT as someone on an income of £100,000/annum, which is just not right.

Doesn't work like that and no, that is NOT what they are asking at all and I can't work out how you come to that assumption.

Hammyman

Sandwich wrote: »

Well what should I do?

I'm on around £6000 per year. My bank balance is barely in the black. I have no assets that I can sell.

Cancel Sky, Mobile Phone, Broadband. You have a laptop/PC you can sell. You can look for a job.

The Council wants me to pay £170 per month for god knows how long, or pay the full £1500 up front now.

For a supposedly educated person you sure are doing a good job of looking like the village idiot. You owe £X. !!!!!! do you think your outstanding balance divided by £170 is? Here's a clue: The answer is the number of months you'll be paying it for.

I don't want bailiffs knocking at my door and I don't want to get even more in debt because of court fees.

If you don't pay then that is exactly what will happen because you have let this drag on.

I've called the Council and they won't put a hold on this bill. I called the benefits people and they say that the last letter I sent will take approximately 28 days to process, so god knows how long my application will take to complete. I do not know what to do.

Pay it or have the bailiffs knock on the door or go to court. Those are your only three options. What you want - that they will put it on hold whilst you wait for a 2 year backdated claim - is simply not going to happen. "I am waiting on a decision for a backdated claim" is not an excuse to delay payment.

Burying your head in the sand or sticking fingers in your ears and going "la la la" or crying to mummy and daddy that the nasty man is upsetting you won't make this go away. Welcome to the world of grown ups.

Sandwich

Hammyman wrote: »

Cancel Sky, Mobile Phone, Broadband. You have a laptop/PC you can sell. You can look for a job.



For a supposedly educated person you sure are doing a good job of looking like the village idiot. You owe £X. !!!!!! do you think your outstanding balance divided by £170 is? Here's a clue: The answer is the number of months you'll be paying it for.


If you don't pay then that is exactly what will happen because you have let this drag on.


Pay it or have the bailiffs knock on the door or go to court. Those are your only three options. What you want - that they will put it on hold whilst you wait for a 2 year backdated claim - is simply not going to happen. "I am waiting on a decision for a backdated claim" is not an excuse to delay payment.

Burying your head in the sand or sticking fingers in your ears and going "la la la" or crying to mummy and daddy that the nasty man is upsetting you won't make this go away. Welcome to the world of grown ups.

Great advice.

I'll sell my computer, without which I couldn't do the little bit of paid work I've managed to find, which is the only thing standing between me and absolute poverty. It also happens to be a fairly handy device for working on my PhD thesis with.

Thanks for that pearl of wisdom. Oh, and FYI, I don't have Sky/cable and I don't have a mobile phone contract. I do have broadband, but again, it is necessary for work and at £15/month that is not going to be a problem solver. Another thing that definitely won't be problem solver is to borrow money (which is effectively what you are telling me to do when you tell me to go overdrawn). I think that must be the first thing they tell debt counsellors at debt counselling school.

And I didn't realise that "looking for work" paid the bills nowadays. Please can you advise me on where to go to pick up my cheque for looking for work, because that is what I have been doing for the past year or more. I was under the impression that you only got a pay cheque when you have actually found a job. I don't know if you've heard, but there aren't many jobs out there at the moment and there's an awful lot of people looking for them. I have my qualifications, references, experience, etc, etc, but when there are 40 applicants for every job it's easier said than done to find full-time, permanent, paid employment.