quite angry and annoyed

butterbear

Morning All

Apologies if this is in the wrong place- please move if this is the case.

I had a letter on Friday from my local council, it was for an attachment of earnings regarding council tax for 2010.

Now I had a DRO that was granted in March 2011 that included council tax debt from 2010 I ring the number on the letter and explain this and in response reeceive a whole load of waffle about how they are usually informed by the OR blah blah as if i was lying. So I fax them a copy of my DRO. However a copy of the attachment of earning letter has been sent to my employer!!

When I was talking with the council moron he mentiones that the attachment must have been raised in the wrong name and it should be in my partners name (he didnt have DRO) so I explained that he had paid off his debt through the bailief etc etc but he kept repling that their system says that there is an outstanding debt.

I ring my partner who is as confused as I am at this point. He in turn rings the bailief who confirms to him that they have no outstanding debt for him!!!

Now we think we can work out what has happened, there were 2 debts for council tax (very long story) and the bailief condensed them under one ref number obviously this has not been communicated with council or they have not registered it or something.

My question is what do we do now? councils are difficult to deal with att the best of time, I realise we are going to have to go through all the bank statements for this period and highlight all the payments etc yet I am still cross in the way that they have handled our information- they have sent out official letters with incorrect information and I'm wondering if this is in breach of Data Protection.

Ove the phone it was a case of 'computer say this' completely unable to comprehend that there has been a misfile or something somewhere!

Ive stewed over this all weekend I know that we are going to have to battle this, and I know that it may look like we are people who try to avoid their bills but this is not the case at all.

Any advice on the best way to handle this or if I have grounds to complain would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, and I'm sorry if I have gone off on a rant

savingjenny

Just write the council a letter setting out the facts.

It's really not worth confusing the issue with complaining about data protection. The simpler you keep your case, the sooner it will all be sorted.

And there is no point in call council employees morons either - the guy will have been working from the information he had in front of him.

Best be clear, polite and persistent in these sorts of mix-ups I find. If a simple letter doesn't resolve the matter, then write (or email) another one with the word COMPLAINT in capital letters at the top.

Tell your employer, correctly, that the council has messed up and you don't owe them anything.

debt_doctor

Hi,

Clearly you should not be getting an attachment for this debt, but I wondered.............

Was the council tax debt that you placed in to your DRO for an address where you lived by yourself, or with someone else or with your current partner

butterbear

Thank you for the replies

I have faxed over a copy of my DRO to them and will be following it up in writing at the moment we are waiting for the info to prove that this was paid by my partner through their bailiff, as this was a few years ago we are having to wait for copies of statements to come through from the bank.

Yes I had a DRO and my partner was then responsible for the debt and he paid it off weekly via the councils bailiff. I explained this repeatedly to the man I spoke with, trying, in vain, to point out that their information, their 'data', was incorrect. I spent nearly half an hour repeating this and the only response I got was that someone was responsible for the debt. By the end of the conversation I wanted to scream, yes someone was responsible and they bloody paid it!!

The man I spoke with did not listen to me at all or try in any way to try to help or have the information checked, he did not appear to have the ability to move beyond their 'computer says' response and anyone having to endure that would come to the conclusion that they were a moron!! The council are not infallible and their staff should be able to deal with issues raised.

I did speak to my employer and thankfully they were very understanding, but that does not change the fact that I had to raise a personal and embarrassing issue to them. The letter did arrive too and I cannopt begin to describe the emotions that went through me when I saw it I felt physically sick, vulnerable and angry.

I have learnt that my local council are not the swiftest to act on issues which is why I was asking about data protection as I would like to include some reference if for no other reason then to get them to deal with the issue and correct their mistake.

I'm going off again I will leave it here, if i remember I will let you know how I get on when after writing to them.