benefits/council tax mess & bailiffs...

victoriav

Oh dear, my next door neighbour, philip,28 has been on benefits a while due to having a serious accident. His benefits have been messed about so much, he finds it hard to keep track, his money is messed about, one benefit was stopped but no reason and it is having to be reinstated he re-applied, nobody knows why it happened...he finds his forms are regularly lost especially council tax benefit. he finds he has to fill them in several times, the same ones then same are requested again. bAsically to cut a long story short its maladministration. he tried phoning dss he has no phone, has to use call box and never gets answered. so he sent letteres recorded delivery which have never been answered, or acknowledged.

he then receives a bailiffs notice today, however before receiving bailiff notice, he has spoken to the courts because the council threatened bailiffs before, explaining benefit mess is being sorted, he sent letters recorded delivery but got no reply, and recorded delivery letter to the council to say he does qualify for CTB and they all know this, they all also know that he is disabled, he lost his leg.

He went to CAB they are shortstaffed, and then he also found nobody is qualified on benefits or council tax who are left of the staff. there are 2/3 staff he says. Then he found that the local, help centre, has been closed a few months as it was council funded and no more funding is avaialble.

question is,are the council allowed to send bailiffs when they are fully aware that the benefit mess is being sorted? also the court know of the situation, so why then have they allowed a liability order to be issued,and why have they not acknowledged his letter ? its all a mess, he is in a terrible nervous state, does anybody know the ins and outs, or who now could help him, also how can a bailiff seize goods when they are his sisters as it is her house, but only he lives there as she works abroad. why don't they know this? Its on all his forms. or is it that they are a law onto themselves, the council ,the dss and the courts and the bailiffs?

So he is asking if anybody on here knows what he can do? He is barricaded in the house and wont come out except for me. I have been to buy his food for him.

CIS

Legaly, its your responsibility to ensure payments are made until the day that benefits are actualy credited to your Council Tax account, even if it subsequently means that you have paid money which is refunded once benefits have been credited.

Best practice however is that a Council doesn't take recovery action whilst a benefits claim is being processed, however did he keep the Council Tax department upto date on the delays ?, if he hadn't told then about the delay in benefits they would assume that benefits wasn't going to be paid and continue with recovery.

Quite simply a Liability Order is issued on an outstanding Council Tax debt which remains due until either paid or credite d by benefits, so technicaly the council have not applied for it incorrectly.

It sounds like he has spoken to benefits but not Council Tax, he needs to speak to Council Tax ASAP as they are the only ones who can hold or call off the bailiffs.

lewt

it's not northampton council is it?

victoriav

lewt wrote: »

it's not northampton council is it?

no it isn't! it is one which is notorious though!!

victoriav

yes he has told the council tax department. i think i may have to go in person? but won't i need written permission from him and then get an appointment? who exactly would i need speak to? go straight to the top person?

CIS

yes he has told the council tax department. i think i may have to go in person? but won't i need written permission from him and then get an appointment? who exactly would i need speak to? go straight to the top person?

You would need his written authority or for him to go with you. The best bet isn't to go straight in and ask for the top person. Speak to the advisor whos available and see what they can do, providing they're reasonably competent then they will be able to help resolve the issue or pass the query up to someone who can.

victoriav

thanks for reply CIS, I thought that it would be best to go straight to the top person, as so far the underdogs have been incompetent, for the situation to have even got to this stage...would it not get a quicker and proper result? rather than being fobbed off and it still not resolved, as he is in a real state,and I don't want to be appearing to only half help him when i said i would? if you understand what i mean.

Eager_Elephant

Do you know any local councillors or Council Memebrs?

There should be a list on the website.

Find out who it is and ring them up, they will be able to help.

As soon as a councillor or member gets involved then things are normally sorted pretty sharpish - don't want to upset the ones who keep your job and decide on redundancies.etc.

EE