Please help - received attachment of earnings letter

rreeve

On Saturday I received a letter through the door regarding a £650 debt I owe my local council. The letter states they will be making deductions from my wages of 11% untill the debt is fully paid.
I don't dispute the debt and I know this is my fault because I didn't set up the direct debit about a month ago. The reason being is I have been really struggling financially lately as I've recently moved and I had to pay off other debts to a loan shark.
I'm going to call the council today to plea with them for one more chance. I can offer £40 per month.
I won't be able to survive if they take 11% from my earnings.
Can someone please advise me.
Also this letter from my local council states:
"The law allows us to do this without applying to a civil court and your employer is legally bound to comply if requested to do so"
Please help, I'm desperate for some advice before I call them.

pmlindyloo

rreeve wrote: »

On Saturday I received a letter through the door regarding a £650 debt I owe my local council. The letter states they will be making deductions from my wages of 11% untill the debt is fully paid.
I don't dispute the debt and I know this is my fault because I didn't set up the direct debit about a month ago. The reason being is I have been really struggling financially lately as I've recently moved and I had to pay off other debts to a loan shark.
I'm going to call the council today to plea with them for one more chance. I can offer £40 per month.
I won't be able to survive if they take 11% from my earnings.
Can someone please advise me.
Also this letter from my local council states:
"The law allows us to do this without applying to a civil court and your employer is legally bound to comply if requested to do so"
Please help, I'm desperate for some advice before I call them.

Reading your other thread it seems that the council set up an arrangement for you to pay these arrears monthly on a repayment plan but you did not comply - hence the attachment of earnings.

I suggest that you contact CAB/Stepchange and ask them to look at your whole income and expenditure and give you advice on the options available to you.

Stepchange

https://www.stepchange.org/?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=270049&WT.seg_1=step%20change&gclid=CLvM8rbgh9MCFe0A0wodTI0PbQ

rreeve

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Reading your other thread it seems that the council set up an arrangement for you to pay these arrears monthly on a repayment plan but you did not comply - hence the attachment of earnings.

I suggest that you contact CAB/Stepchange and ask them to look at your whole income and expenditure and give you advice on the options available to you.

Stepchange

https://www.stepchange.org/?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=270049&WT.seg_1=step%20change&gclid=CLvM8rbgh9MCFe0A0wodTI0PbQ

Why do people on this forum look at past threads and draw assumptions. No, this is nothing to do with any other thread.

I've come on here to ask for advice, not to be judged.
SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
It's OK, I'll go elsewhere and ask for help now

sourcrates

rreeve wrote: »

Why do people on this forum look at past threads and draw assumptions. No, this is nothing to do with any other thread.

I've come on here to ask for advice, not to be judged.
SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
It's OK, I'll go elsewhere and ask for help now

Hi,

I`m assuming this is a council tax debt yes ?

If it is they can recover it in this way quite legally.

I suggest you get on the blower to them today and attempt to sort something out with them, otherwise the attachment of earnings will go ahead.

Usually if you talk to your council, they can be fairly reasonable.

Good luck.

National_Debtline

Hi

Contacting the council and explaining your circumstances is a good idea. I suggest completing a SOA and offer to go through it with them, so that you can demonstrate why your offering the amount you are and why you can’t afford more.

James
@natdebtline

CIS

If it's council tax then the sole decision over recovery is the council's - they decide if they want to issue the order and whether they want to withdraw it.

The only bit that suggests it may not be council tax is

"The law allows us to do this without applying to a civil court and your employer is legally bound to comply if requested to do so"

That would be very unusual wording for council tax.


If you're struggling financially you can apply for a S13A reduction - it's open for any council tax payer to make an application and is in addition to any other council tax reductions.

Craig

pmlindyloo

rreeve wrote: »

Why do people on this forum look at past threads and draw assumptions. No, this is nothing to do with any other thread.

I've come on here to ask for advice, not to be judged.
SO FRUSTRATING!!!!
It's OK, I'll go elsewhere and ask for help now

I am sorry that you feel my post was judgemental - not my intention at all, so my apologies.

Many people use past posts of the OP to see if there are clues to how certain things have arisen as information given can be incorrect if the poster hasn't given all the background.

Attachment of earnings is not used without various other methods being explored first so your overpayment of housing benefit and what happened led me to believe that this post connected to that. Again my apologies for getting it wrong.

My advice still stands about seeking help from a professional body. Using Step change or similar can be very helpful as they have experience of similar situations and know the best avenues to explore.

Are you claiming all the benefits that you are entitled to?

fatbelly

If it's council tax there is a banded sliding scale for AoEs

11% is not one of the bands.

We need more detail from the op. Could this be a DEA rather than an AoE? Could it be for a Housing Benefit overpayment for instance?

National_Debtline

fatbelly wrote: »

If it's council tax there is a banded sliding scale for AoEs

11% is not one of the bands.

We need more detail from the op. Could this be a DEA rather than an AoE? Could it be for a Housing Benefit overpayment for instance?

This sounds like a possibility fatbelly. Especially if the OP earns between £1160 - £1615 per month, which is the 11% deduction band for a DEA. It would line up with the comment from CIS about unusual wording too.

James
@natdebtline

CIS

fatbelly wrote: »

If it's council tax there is a banded sliding scale for AoEs

11% is not one of the bands.

We need more detail from the op. Could this be a DEA rather than an AoE? Could it be for a Housing Benefit overpayment for instance?

I managed to read straight past the 11% figure - I'd also agree the DEA fits.

Craig

January2015

fatbelly wrote: »

If it's council tax there is a banded sliding scale for AoEs

11% is not one of the bands.

We need more detail from the op. Could this be a DEA rather than an AoE? Could it be for a Housing Benefit overpayment for instance?

Apologies for going off topic - but what is DEA? I have googled and all it comes up with is Drug Enforcement Agency - clearly not what is being referred to in this instance;)