Wage Arrestment - still an active court order once the debt is cleared

_SeanT

Hi there,

I had a wage arrestment for outstanding council tax put in place after a long period of battling against liability. I eventually gave in and let the arrestment continue.

I called the sheriff officers every few months just to check the remaining balance. In May I was informed that there was a grand total of £7 left to pay. Excellent I thought, that part of my life is finally over. However on my May payday I was deducted £155 - I took this as possibly extra fees, called the sheriff officers who told me my arrestment was over and there would be no further payments.

In June a further £155 was deducted. I called the sheriff officers again who again confirmed the debt was cleared and a stop order was issued to my work. If further payments had been taken it was down to my workplace.
I called my HR department who now after two weeks have finally told me they have not received the stop order. I contacted the council who said a refund would be issued once the stop order was enacted and to contact them after I'd sorted everything out.

I just feel like I've been passed back and forth between all institutions involved, and have not been given a clear answer on what to do. It's now approaching my July payday with no answer in sight.

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to go from here? Or any experience in this occurring before? And will I definitely see these overpayments refunded? I'm so tired of phoning people and just want this to be over.

CIS

England, rather than Scotland, but this happened with probably 25% of liability orders.

Some employers would not stop the order not matter how many times you told them and it sometimes took a couple of months of telephone calls, letters and emails to them to get them to cease.